


Sora's Protectors

by Cait_Sidhe



Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: (but not really), Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Assault, Boys In Love, Boys Kissing, Bullying, Coming Out, Depressed Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Depression, Destiny Islands (Kingdom Hearts), Eating Disorders, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fainting, Feelings Realization, First Kiss, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Getting Together, Hallucinations, High School, Hollow Bastion | Radiant Garden, Homophobia, Homophobic Language, Hurt, Hurt/Comfort, Implied Sexual Content, Keyblade Wielder Kairi (Kingdom Hearts), Keyblades (Kingdom Hearts), Literal Sleeping Together, Love Confessions, M/M, Magic, Mental Health Issues, Minor Injuries, Minor Kairi/Selphie, Mysterious Tower (Kingdom Hearts), POV Riku (Kingdom Hearts), POV Sora (Kingdom Hearts), POV Third Person Limited, Post-Kingdom Hearts II, Pre-Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance, Protective Riku (Kingdom Hearts), Realm of Darkness (Kingdom Hearts), Riku Loves Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Riku has a little sister, Secret Relationship, Self-Esteem Issues, Sleeping Together, Sora Loves Riku (Kingdom Hearts), Suicidal Thoughts, The Unversed (Kingdom Hearts), Underage Drinking, Violence, toddler with a keyblade
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-22
Updated: 2020-09-27
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:08:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 70,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26594986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cait_Sidhe/pseuds/Cait_Sidhe
Summary: Of all the creatures Sora encountered on his journey, he never expected that the most hateful would be found on his home world in the form of homophobic high-school bullies. On top of dealing with that, Sora has been seeing strange creatures similar to heartless everywhere, which seem tied to him somehow, and has been struggling with thoughts he doesn't understand—some good, some not so good. Of course, he's going to keep all of this to himself, as he doesn't want to worry anyone.Riku arrived home to discover he has a little sister—one who can use magic and to whom Kairi accidentally bequeathed a keyblade. He can also tell Sora is obviously hiding things, and is immensely worried. He wants to help Sora, but isn't sure how...And of course, through this all, Riku and Sora are untangling their own feelings for each other.
Relationships: Riku/Sora (Kingdom Hearts)
Comments: 30
Kudos: 125





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my longest Kingdom Hearts fic thus far, clocking in at around 65k words! There are 19 full chapters and a small epilogue, each chapter consisting of, on average, 2-3 smaller scenes and totaling 2-5k words (I know, that's quite the difference in chapter length, but that's how it worked out best). 
> 
> Pay attention to the tags; this deals with some heavy stuff. If you think it needs a tag that isn't there, please let me know!
> 
> The rating hovers between T and M depending on how you define such, so I gave it M to be safe. Please note that it deals with severe bullying that includes the use of heavily offensive slurs as well as physical violence (although not graphic enough for the big warning). It is rated for that; any sexual content is very mild and mostly implied.
> 
> It's set after KH2, starting about a week after they return to the Destiny Islands. It alternates between Sora's and Riku's POV, though there are more Sora scenes than Riku ones.

Sora doodled absentmindedly in his notebook as he attempted to listen to the teacher dryly explain something about photosynthesis. The attempt was not working well; why would he care about photosynthesis when he was a hero who went between worlds fighting darkness? Yet barely a week after defeating Xemnas, even though they’d been told to stay ready in case their skills were needed again, Sora, Riku, and Kairi had been sent right back to school to learn crap like this. What was the point? When would how plants make food ever be useful to know in his life? 

What sucked even more about school was that Sora was behind both Kairi and Riku in nearly everything—Riku had somehow managed to place into Kairi’s grade (apparently he’d used some of the time when Sora was asleep to study), but Sora hadn’t (except in math, as apparently the calculations needed for GummiShip navigation and magic and things were similar to what the school taught during the time he’d missed; however, due to scheduling issues Sora still wasn’t in the same class period for for that as the other two despite being the same level). So, Sora was alone. Well not quite, since Tidus was in the same grade as him, but that only served as a reminder that Sora was a year behind Riku and Kairi (though considering he’d been gone nearly two years, being only one year behind was theoretically still an accomplishment... but it still sucked). He felt childish, lagging behind them as usual. He also felt a bit guilty, because Tidus was treating him as though he’d never left and had been excited to share a class, but Sora had been distancing himself from the friendship. It just felt awkward; Sora had experienced too much over the past two years to so easily return to normal high-school life.

Sora used to sit in the front in order to more easily concentrate, since he'd always struggled with that, but when he tried that the previous day he just felt jumpy with everyone behind him. Then Tidus, seated directly behind him, had unexpectedly poked Sora in the back with a pencil to get his attention, and Sora jumped right out of his seat, tripping over his chair to tumble onto the floor, milliseconds away from summoning the keyblade. After that embarrassment, Sora had decided to sit in the very back corner, close to the window. Maybe it was tougher to focus on the lesson here, but he could see everything around him and the window provided a quick escape if needed. Logically he knew he was safe on the islands, but Sora couldn’t help having some lingering battle instincts. Better safe than sorry, as the adage goes.

Sora’s gaze drifted to the window. Outside was a courtyard with a pathway, bushes, and a small garden filled with various flowers courtesy of the gardening club. And in the middle of that garden, a moving shadow that was not caused by any of the flowers. Sora turned his gaze back to his notebook, then did a double-take, heart racing.

But there was nothing there. Had he imagined it?

BAM. Sora jumped, but before he could fully leap from his seat realized that he was not under attack—the teacher had slammed a ruler on his desk.

“Sora,” the teacher said sternly. “Is this class a joke to you?”

Sora shook his head. “No, sir.”

“So then, you already know everything I’m talking about?”

“Huh? No…?”

“Then it would do you well to”—he hit the ruler on the desk—“Pay”—another hit of the ruler—“attention!” The teacher frowned at Sora, who was trying to reason with his instincts to attack the perceived threat. “If I catch you daydreaming again,” the teacher warned, “I’ll give you detention. Understood?”

“Understood,” Sora muttered tersely, trying to hide his sudden surge of anger at the situation.

As the teacher returned to the front of the class, Sora heard his classmates snickering under their breaths and whispering to each other. Second day in a row he’d made a fool of himself in this class, of only two days back in school. What a great start.

Not even ten minutes later Sora found his concentration wandering again, back out to the garden where he’d thought he’d seen the heartless earlier…

BRRRRNNNG! This time, Sora’s jump of surprise was due to the school bell marking the end of class. Finally!

Sora hurried out of class, then back in when he realized he’d forgotten his backpack; he could have sworn he saw the teacher roll his eyes. Sora dashed to his locker, exchanged his books, and dashed off to his next class, which was the sole one he shared with Kairi and Riku. On the way, he was stopped by a teacher for running in the hallway. She took his name down to submit to the office, to Sora’s annoyance; the school policy was that if you were caught running three times you’d get detention, and he’d gotten marked for it the previous day as well. But he couldn’t help running! He was used to moving fast, running through forests and streets, not navigating slowly through crowded corridors!

Sora was therefore extra grumpy when he plopped down next to Kairi and Riku at their shared station in the culinary elective class. Though it wasn’t something Sora or Riku would usually choose, Kairi was already enrolled in it (the school had students choose classes at the end of the prior year, so they could be approved and schedules arranged) and it had no prerequisites so the two boys leapt at the opportunity to share a class with each other and Kairi regardless of subject. A bonus was that it didn’t require the same amount of catch-up as their other classes did—all three had started the school year nearly a month late thanks to their adventure, which was being framed to everyone, with the exception of their parents, as them having run away. No one had trouble believing it, as the two had been fairly vocal about their wanderlust beforehand. They also had no trouble believing that Kairi had gone after them, as was her story, as she’d been talking about wanting to the entire time they’d been gone (well, except the year the Islands fell to darkness, which no one else there remembered).

“You okay, Sora?” Riku asked with concern, noting Sora’s disgruntled attitude.

Sora sighed. “Yeah. Just frustrated. Got called out in class for being distracted, and then got another strike for running. No big deal.” He didn’t mention that he thought he saw a heartless; it had probably been his imagination.

Kairi giggled. “Sora, you’re going to get detention your first week back!”

“I know,” Sora groaned as he dropped his head on top of his arms, which had been crossed on the table.

When Sora lifted his head, he saw something in the corner of the room, in the shadows under an unused station. Two glowing orbs, reminiscent of the heartless’ eyes, although red instead of golden. He tensed and stared at them, prepared to respond if it attacked.

“Sora?” Riku asked, noticing.

Sora blinked, and the eyes were gone. “It’s nothing,” Sora said, shaking his head and relaxing slightly. He didn’t want to worry his friends so soon after getting back; if there was a stray heartless or two hanging around, he’d take care of them. “I’m just a bit tired, that’s all. Not used to school yet.” Which was actually true. He’d even slept through his first class, whatever it was—thankfully that class had a very uncaring teacher whose philosophy was that it was the student’s job to listen, not his job to force them to; as long as Sora figured out which subject it was and studied properly before tests he’d be fine.

“Ah. Yeah, it is definitely an adjustment,” Riku agreed. “But, you have gym class next, right? That should help.”

Sora’s eyes lit up. “Oh, right!” Gym class was Sora’s favorite period next to lunch, which came right after. He liked that he could move rather than sit still. Having it midday followed by lunch made it much easier to sit through the other classes.

“We’ll come cheer you on!” Kairi said. She and Riku had lunch next period, and gym class was usually outside.

“Haha, thanks, you guys,” Sora said, rubbing the back of his head and smiling slightly.

“Just be careful,” Riku reminded him. “I came really close to using a special ability earlier during gym; remember, regular humans don’t have those, so no super sprints, high jumps, or gliding.”

Sora sighed. “Yeah, I know.” Yesterday he’d accidentally magically enhanced a kick and thus kicked a ball so hard it knocked someone over, though he didn’t tell the two that.

“We should probably get started on the assignment,” Kairi suddenly realized. It had been on the board from the start of class, which had already been nearly ten minutes prior. “The cake needs to cool before icing, so we need to get it in the oven quickly.”

Sora shrugged. “That’s what blizzard spells are for,” he said, grabbing a measuring cup and the flour. Thankfully the teacher always put the ingredients and tools needed at the student workstations beforehand.

Riku let out a small laugh. “Sora, what did we just say about using non-human abilities?”

“I can be subtle!”

  
  


∞♣♥☼♥♣∞

Sora grumbled as he jogged around the track, still frustrated with how the day had been going. As he passed by the bleachers, Sora waved to Riku and Kairi, who, true to their word, had come to cheer Sora on while they ate their lunch, even though they weren’t actually playing a sport that day—there was a substitute instructor, which always meant running the track.

Sora was actually surprised that Riku and Kairi had come to watch him after all, as they were a bit annoyed at him—Sora had gone through with his idea to cool the cake with a blizzard spell, which had not worked as planned. Although it did cool the cake, the spell also ended up destroying the small fridge Sora had thought he’d subtly use the spell in, which collapsed on the cake and ruined it. The teacher didn’t hold it against them, assuming the fridge breaking had been a freak accident, but still. They knew what had actually happened.

When the teacher blew the whistle to signal the end of class, Sora waved to Riku and Kairi and hurried to the locker room, ready for lunch—well, as soon as he changed back into his uniform. He didn’t know why the school wouldn’t just let them wear gym shorts, sneakers, and t-shirts all day; they were so much more comfortable than their uniform, which consisted of a white polo shirt, sky-blue plaid capri pants and tie, and black shoes. 

As Sora began to work on tying his tie, which always took him a few tries, a couple of boys walked up to him whom Sora barely recognized. Understandable, as he knew almost no one in his grade and it was only his second day back. They might have also been in his math class? Sora wasn’t sure. They were much bigger than him, and started to crowd him.

“Um. Do you two need something?” Sora asked warily, backing up a little. Although generally friendly, Sora wasn’t very comfortable being physically close to people he didn’t know well.

“You’re the kid who ran away for two years with that other boy, right?” one asked.

“Yeah,” Sora replied. He relaxed slightly; it seemed they were just curious about his story. A lot of people were. “I don’t really want to talk about it though.”

“What is that boy to you?” the second asked.

This line of questioning confused Sora. “He’s my best friend. Why?”

The first boy, who had short blonde hair, scoffed. “‘Best friend’, huh? Is that what you fags call it now?” he said vitriolically.

“What?” Sora asked, becoming further confused. He never heard that word before nor expected such a tone of voice.

“You know what we mean,” the other boy, who had slightly longer yet still short brown hair, said with a sneer, and he pushed Sora.

Sora tensed, ready to strike back, but withheld, remembering that he wasn’t supposed to show unnatural abilities. Beating a kid up with a magic sword would not be conducive to staying undercover. “What was that for!?” he yelled, becoming acutely aware that the three of them were the only ones left in the locker room.

Suddenly, the second guy punched Sora, hard. Sora let out a yell and put his hands over his eye as he stumbled backwards, hitting a locker. What the hell? The next punch, from the other guy, was to Sora’s stomach, before he could even react.

The first guy spit on Sora. “Change in the bathroom next time; no one wants a fag leering at them.”

As the two turned and left, Sora slinked down to the floor, clutching his stomach. He was so confused; what were the boys talking about? Why would they attack him like that? They were just regular schoolkids. Sora was just minding his own business. It didn’t make sense. After a few minutes, some kids for the next class came in, and Sora stood up and quickly grabbed his things, leaving the tie half-tied.

Sora rushed outside, not even bothering to stop at his locker or grab something to eat. He wasn’t hungry. He just wanted to curl up somewhere and cry—which he did. He found a secluded area as far from the school as he could get to within his lunch break, and let it all out. The day had been absolutely horrible; nearly every class period something had gone wrong! 

Once he’d finally calmed down, Sora checked his watch. He’d been there too long; he’d be late to class at this rate. He really didn’t want to go… he couldn’t help but think more would go wrong. So instead of heading back to school, Sora walked in the opposite direction, barely paying attention to where he was going. 

Passing by a small stretch of forest, something caught Sora’s eye: a shadow fleeing. Sora instantly drew his keyblade and ran into the woods, following it. Not far in he realized it was nowhere in sight. 

Sora sighed and left the woods, heading to the nearby shore and sitting against a palm tree, looking out at the water. There were no other islands visible from this side of their town’s island, which was on the farthest end of the archipelago.

Sora looked out at the seemingly endless ocean, recalling how he, Riku, and Kairi had actually planned to take a raft to reach other lands, with nothing but a few coconuts and other random things. They’d have lasted a day, if they didn’t bake in the sun first. Maybe it was good that they’d ended up leaving to see other worlds in a much different manner. Everything had worked out in the end, after all, and they’d had their huge adventure! Not exactly together, but still… Sora found he missed it. Missed the other worlds. He shouldn’t yet, as it had only been just over a week since they’d returned, two days since they went back to school… yet Sora found himself almost wishing for the worlds to be in danger again, since that would mean they were needed again, which meant that they could leave this hellhole. Why had Sora ever dreamed about returning to this place? It seemed so anticlimactic… Everyone expected him to just return to being a regular teenager, but that was impossible. Not with what he’d experienced. Not with what he was.

Sora yawned. He was being too negative; this wasn’t like him. He needed to get his act together; after all, he didn’t want to worry people. Riku had spent a full year worrying over Sora while he was asleep in that pod, and Sora didn’t want him to have reason to worry more. Sora needed to be happy, for Riku, Kairi, his mom, Riku’s dad—who basically had been Sora’s dad for all intents and purposes—and everyone else.

Sora closed his eyes for a moment, feeling the warm sun on his face, trying to forget about all the negative things and focus only on the positive things… of which honestly he wasn’t seeing many.

  
  


∞♣♥☼♥♣∞

Sora woke to voices yelling his name and someone jostling his shoulder. Sora blinked open his eyes to see Riku and Kairi, both who looked immensely concerned.

“What are you doing here?” Sora asked with a yawn, sitting up; he must have fallen onto his side while he slept. 

“Shouldn’t we be asking you that?” Riku asked, plopping down next to Sora and brushing some sand from Sora’s hair. Then, he gasped. “Sora! You have a black eye! What happened?!” He quickly used a cure spell, which healed both the eye and the bruise on Sora’s stomach.

“I tripped,” Sora lied, looking away as he said so.

“Tripped,” Riku repeated flatly, clearly not believing him.

“Yeah. So, why are you here?”

“We didn’t see you anywhere when we left school, and your mom said you weren’t home yet when we got there. So we went looking for you.”

Sora shrugged. “Guess I fell asleep during lunch. I didn’t mean to. School’s already over?”

“During lunch? You skipped school!?” Kairi asked, scandalized.

“I didn’t mean to,” Sora said again, even though he had.

“Why would you come all the way out here for lunch?” Riku wondered in disbelief.

“I dunno. I was just walking around, and ended up here…”

“Well, it’s getting dark; let’s all go back, okay?” Kairi said, offering Sora her hand to help him up, which Sora accepted.

The three walked home together for the most part, but Kairi split off before the boys, as her house was in a slightly different section of the island, where the larger houses were. Sora and Riku lived a few houses from each other in a more average neighborhood.

“Hey. You okay?” Riku asked suddenly.

“Yeah, of course!” Sora said, trying for a happy tone which he was sure definitely sounded fake. “Why?” he added.

“You seem a bit down,” Riku explained. Why was he so perceptive?

Sora shook his head. “No, not at all. I’m happy. I’m always happy…” he trailed off, tone painfully belying the statement.

“Sora,” Riku said gently as he stopped walking. Sora automatically stopped in response too. Riku put his hand on Sora’s shoulder, and Sora’s heart skipped a beat; Sora wasn’t sure why. Riku continued, “If something’s bothering you, you can talk to me, you know. Talking does help; trust me on that.”

Sora frowned. “Huh? You talk to someone? Who?” Sora wasn’t sure why, but he felt a little put-out that Riku had been talking about feelings to someone who wasn’t him. “Kairi?”

Riku chuckled. “No, no one here. I used to talk to Naminé, back when you were asleep. She helped me work through a lot of my feelings, figure out why the darkness had gotten to me and… various other things.” Was that a small blush?

“Oh. Yeah, that makes sense,” Sora said, feeling a wave of guilt. It’d been Sora’s stupidity that got him into that situation, and Riku suffered for it.

“Also,” Riku continued, “I spoke to Mickey sometimes. You must have talked to Donald and Goofy about things too, right?”

“Um… yeah, I guess,” Sora said, even though he really hadn’t. Basically the process had been: 1. Sora expressed a negative thought; 2. Donald and Goofy told him to smile and think happy thoughts; 3. Sora smiled and declared they were right, he was being silly; 4. Sora would stew on it and cry later on where no one could see and tell him he was overreacting, which he probably was.

“Exactly. So, spill,” Riku said. “What’s on your mind?”

Sora sighed. Riku probably expected a better explanation for the black eye… Sora reached for a different not-nice subject to discuss. Or, not so different. “Okay, so don’t tell Kairi, but… I didn’t accidentally skip class,” Sora admitted.

Riku raised an eyebrow, but said nothing, waiting for Sora to continue.

“I just didn’t feel like going. I lost track of time at lunch, and decided that instead of going to class late I’d just skip. I mean, it’s not like there’s a huge point in going, right? Eventually they’ll call us back to help do keyblade stuff. We won’t need to know about the history of the islands and whatnot when that happens.”

Riku bit his lip in thought. “Okay, maybe we won’t need to know the history of the islands, but we will have to know other things. Like, math, for example. You had to use a lot of it during your adventure, right? For magic and GummiShip stuff.”

“Well, yeah, but math is easy! All I do in that class is look out the window and doodle in my notebook. Why’s he gotta explain everything a dozen times? Isn’t once enough?”

Riku looked amused. “Sora, you’ve been to that class exactly once.”

“Okay, fine,” Sora conceded. “But every other math class has been like that, so this probably won’t be any different. I might actually like it if they didn’t repeat everything a bazillion times, but no, they have to spend a week explaining a concept that should only take one class period.”

“Sora, most people need to have math things explained to them more than once. We can’t all be geniuses.”

Sora scoffed and rolled his eyes. “Riku, I’m the opposite of a genius.” Everyone else said so. 

Riku shook his head. “I have no idea where you got that idea, but you’re really not.”

“That’s not what my grades say,” Sora pointed out. "Well, other than math, that is." Also by grades he meant grades in previous years, as he had none yet this year as he’d only been there two days. Well, one and a half. Sora also vaguely noted he could probably—no, definitely—get better grades if he remembered to study and didn’t half-ass all his papers and projects last second because he'd forgotten about them. It wasn’t only about the grades, though. “Besides, you’re the only person who ever says that. Everyone else thinks I’m stupid.”

“Well, then they don’t know you as well as I do,” Riku said matter-of-factly. “You are not stupid. Could you have saved the worlds twice if you were?”

Sora thought for a moment. “I guess not,” he said, not believing it himself—most of it had been sheer dumb luck—but wanting the argument to be over. “Come on, let's get moving.”

The two again began walking back to their houses, both in their own thoughts. Sora noticed Riku glancing at him every so often, with an unidentifiable expression. Worry, maybe? Pity? Probably pity. Sora thought back to earlier in the day. Yeah, Sora was quite pitiful. If he had more balls, he would have screwed the World Order rules and fought back. Although, maybe not. They were regular human school kids, even if they were overgrown for it. He couldn't hurt a regular non-evil human. Plus, Sora had always been a pushover, allowing people to call him names and tease him. This wasn’t much different, right? Except for the word used… should he ask what it meant? Or would that be too telling? It would be if the word were bad, which Sora had a feeling it was by how the boys had said it. He didn’t want to worry Riku, and if Riku knew people were calling Sora names, he would definitely worry...

“Riku?” Sora asked after a while, deciding to ask anyway. “What a fag?”

Riku turned to Sora, surprised and looking a little angry. “Where’d you hear that word?”

Sora shrugged. “Some guys said it during gym. I don’t know what it means.”

Riku paused for a moment, as though thinking how to word things. “It’s… a really bad slur for someone who’s gay. Short for ‘faggot’.”

“Gay?” Sora asked. “What’s that?” he hadn’t heard that term either, except in old books, but Sora didn’t think the boys had meant the same definition.

“It means someone who is attracted to a person of the same gender. Like, instead of a boy and a girl in love, two girls or two boys.”

Sora blinked in surprise. “That’s allowed?” He hadn’t known that. Then again, he didn’t know much about love in general. “All the books and movies have it just a girl and a boy. I just assumed that was how things worked…” This new knowledge opened a whole new realm of possibilities. Maybe it was even the key to untangling some of the confusing thoughts Sora had been having lately.

Riku laughed. It sounded slightly bitter. “Yeah, well, that’s because a lot of people disapprove of it, which is why it has slurs.”

Sora frowned. “Why? I don’t really know much about love—kinda difficult to think about that kind of thing when you’re fighting or asleep—but why should gender matter?”

“It doesn’t,” Riku said firmly. “Some people are just really closed-minded, and hate anything different from them.”

“Oh!” Sora realized. “Like, how Beast was forced to live alone in a castle because the townspeople didn’t understand him, and then they got mad at Belle too for falling in love with him?”

Riku smiled. “Yeah, something like that.”

The two finished their walk in amicable silence.


	2. Chapter 2

Riku watched Sora as the brunette walked past the remaining two houses to his own. Riku knew he didn’t need to watch Sora, as the Islands were safe from heartless and Sora was only walking a very short distance alone, but Riku couldn’t help it. He wanted to make sure Sora was safe, especially as someone had obviously hurt him earlier. You didn’t get black eyes from tripping. And even if somehow Sora had, he would have healed it immediately… The only times Sora wouldn’t was when he was upset enough that he forgot to. Combine that with him hearing  _ that word _ for the first time… it wasn’t such a far stretch to conclude that some homophobic asshole had done that to Sora either when in the locker room or during lunch. Riku was well aware of the rumors floating around about them—and knew that Sora would be the more likely target if someone wanted to confront one of them about it, due to their size difference. Why wouldn’t Sora tell them what had happened, though? Was he embarrassed? Actually… Riku could understand that. He probably wouldn’t tell Sora if something like that happened to him, as well. He’d beaten up people who were much more formidable than high-school bullies, after all. Riku would feel ashamed, just like Sora probably did. 

With a start, Riku realized he’d been standing there for quite some time after Sora had entered his house, lost in his thoughts. Embarrassed, Riku quickly ducked into his house.

“Riku!!” came a shout, and his sister, Hikari, waddled up to him. Riku immediately picked up the demanding toddler. Riku had returned home from his ‘adventure’ to a 20-month-old baby sister, to his utter shock. When he left the islands, his dad had been single, and was still single when Riku returned, so Riku had been extremely confused over this. As it turned out, Riku’s dad had a girlfriend before the islands fell that he hadn’t told Riku about—since they hadn’t been serious yet—who then got pregnant and died in childbirth. Riku wasn’t quite sure how the timeline worked, as the islands had been in darkness for part of that time period, but Riku didn’t try to think about that too much. Time stuff got too confusing. 

“Hey, son!” Riku’s dad greeted him. “How was school?”

Riku shrugged the best he could while holding his sister. “It’s school. Not much more to it… oh, but in cooking class, Sora accidentally made the mini fridge explode.”

Riku’s dad raised his eyebrows. “He did? How’d he manage that?”

“He tried to cool the cake with ice magic,” Riku explained as they moved to the kitchen. “Which he apparently does not have as precise control over as he thinks… we didn’t lose marks, though, since the teacher assumed it was a freak accident.”

Riku’s dad chuckled. “Understandable. It’s not like magic is a common thing around the islands, after all.”

“Definitely not,” Riku said as he secured Hikari in her high chair. “So, what about your day? Did you have court?” Riku’s dad was a lawyer; usually he handled small municipal-level cases in town, such as property line disputes and similar squabbles, but sometimes he also picked up more serious cases that got tried at the court the next island over (their island was too small to have its own courthouse, so anything requiring a jury was sent there).

“Nah, I had the day off. Hikari, on the other hand, had a big day,” Riku’s dad said, turning to the girl. “Didn’t you, Hikari?”

Hikari looked at her father blankly, not comprehending. Instead she demandingly said, “Hungry!”

Riku’s dad chuckled, heading over to the stove where some food was already prepared. “I took her to the doctor today. Just a routine check-up, shots and things. She behaved incredibly well; the nurse said she’d never seen a more well-behaved kid!”

“Really?”

“Oh yeah. Leagues better than you were at her age; did you know you bit the nurse and then triggered the sprinklers?”

Riku blushed. “I was that bad?”

“Oh yeah. You were second only to Sora when it came to bad behavior at the doctor.”

“I don’t think that’s true,” Riku denied.

“No? Sora managed to start a fire. No one could figure out how he did it, either. I helped with the insurance claim; there was no discernable origin… hmm. Now I wonder if magic was maybe involved.”

Riku scoffed. “I doubt that. Pretty sure it takes actual practice to do magic, and you need to have a keyblade or similar magical item to use it.” Although come to think of it, Sora had cast that ice magic today without summoning his keyblade… could that be possible for a kid to do?

Yes, it could be possible, as Hikari proved to them seconds later.

“Hungry!” Hikari declared, and a burst of wind blew some papers off the table.

“Ah, seriously? I think there must be a draft in here or something,” Riku’s dad complained. “That’s been happening lately; I can’t for the life of me figure out where it is, though. I guess I shouldn’t put things on that corner of the table.”

“Actually, dad, I’m pretty sure that was a small aero spell,” Riku said, staring at his sister. “So my theory about needing a magical object is definitely wrong…”

Riku’s dad took a moment to process this. “So you’re saying I have two magical kids now, one which isn’t even potty trained?”

“Looks like it…”

“You wouldn’t have any idea how to teach her how to control it, would you?”

Riku shook his head. “Not at all. I can’t do wind magic; that’s more Sora’s thing.”

“Oh, so you each have specialties?” Riku’s dad asked, curious.

Riku nodded. “Yeah. Sora’s more of the mage. He can use all elements but darkness. I’m kinda the opposite; I can use some really powerful dark spells, and my healing and defensive magic is better, but otherwise I mainly use more physical attacks.”

“I see. That must make you a really formidable team, then,” Riku’s dad mused.

Riku blushed. “I guess.”

“You guess?” Riku’s dad raised an eyebrow. “Riku, you two saved the worlds together. If you weren’t a compatible team, that wouldn’t have happened. I’m proud of you, you know.”

“I know,” Riku acknowledged. Riku’s dad had told him that nearly every day since Riku returned; he knew Riku still felt plenty guilty about everything he’d done under Maleficent’s and Ansem’s control, and wanted Riku to be well aware that he didn’t hold any of it against him and was super proud for how he took responsibility afterwards and then saved the worlds.

“Do you?” Riku’s dad challenged.

Riku smiled. “Yeah, I do.”

  
  
  


∞♣♥☼♥♣∞

Sora lay in bed thinking about the day’s events, particularly the conversation he’d had with Riku. Knowing that being gay was a legit thing shone new light on something very confusing that he’d been thinking about since he returned: why had Kairi’s hug felt so awkward when he’d reunited with her, yet seeing Riku again had brought him to tears and caused at least twice the amount of joy finding Kairi had? Theoretically they were both his best friends. He’d thought maybe it was because he’d been searching for Riku longer, though that still was a bit discordant, as he knew Riku had been alive yet wasn’t sure about Kairi, who had been kidnapped by the enemy and held for weeks… but even if that were the reason, why did the hug itself still feel so awkward? He’d hugged Riku later on with no issue, initiating it himself. People always told him that—or at least hinted at—Kairi would be who he would fall in love with, but if that were the case, a hug shouldn’t feel so weird. He’d thought he liked her as more than a friend before the Islands fell, even drew that picture of the paopu fruits, but he was pretty certain he didn’t feel that way anymore. Definitely not enough to share a paopu in a romantic sense. Maybe he never had felt that way about her, rather constructed such a narrative because that’s how everyone said it should be. Maybe what the boys had said had been true. If Sora didn't like girls, it made sense that hugging one would feel awkward… Sora would need to think about all this a lot more.

So at breakfast the next morning, Sora asked his mom about it.

Sora was blunt. “Mom, are you okay with people being gay?”

Sora’s mom looked up from the newspaper she was reading, looking slightly surprised at the question. “Of course,” she said as though it were obvious. “Why do you ask?”

“Just something some kids said yesterday…” Sora shifted nervously. “What if… I were gay?”

Sora’s mom smiled at him. “Honey, you could be a purple people eater and I’d still love you. You being gay is not an issue at all.”

“Oh, but I don’t know if I am or not!” Sora corrected.

“You don’t?” Sora’s mom raised an eyebrow. Did she know something Sora didn’t?

Sora shook his head. “I never really thought about that stuff… I didn’t even know gay was a thing someone was allowed to be until yesterday.”

Sora’s mom smiled. “Well, you did get suddenly thrown into a war, more or less. I can’t imagine there was much time to think about that.”

Sora laughed. “Yeah, you’ve got that right!” Sora felt really lucky, having a mom that was so understanding.

Sora’s mom frowned. “Just, be careful,” she warned. “Not everyone around here is okay with people being gay. I’m not saying to hide it, but you might not want to scream it from the rooftops, either.”

Sora wilted slightly. “Yeah, I kinda figured that out already,” Sora mumbled.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. Sora gave a start and looked over at the clock. “That must be Riku already!” Sora declared. “Crap, I’m late again!” He quickly wolfed down his last few bites of cereal and practically threw the bowl into the sink. He grabbed his backpack and dashed out the door after saying a quick “Bye!” to his mom.

“Lost track of time again?” Riku asked with amusement, ruffling Sora’s slightly disheveled hair.

“Shut up,” Sora muttered with a blush, dodging away.

As the two walked in comfortable silence for a while, Sora wondered what Riku’s feelings were about his questions the previous day. Was Riku gay? He knew more about that stuff than Sora did, and definitely was upset that people disliked it. Was it personal to him? Did he like Sora like that? They had been very affectionate as children, come to think of it, more so than with anyone else. Then again, little kids don’t really know much about love… or, maybe they do. Riku and him were certainly still close, despite the events of the previous two years. Riku had monitored Sora for a full year while he was asleep, and nearly died for him… hm. Fairy tales often had the hero super devoted to and nearly dying for the princess they loved… wait, did that make Sora the princess? Ugh, no way. They could write their own fairy tale, two heroes together, no princess needed. Wait. Why was Sora picturing Riku in that scenario with him? Did he… 

“What’s on your mind?” Riku asked curiously.

“Huh?” Sora snapped out of his reverie. “Oh, just, uh…” Sora scrambled for a random topic. “In fairy tales, the prince usually gets the princess, right?” Wait. Not that topic! Why’d he blurt that out? It’d be too revealing… Well, might as well go with it.

“Yeah…” Riku said, seeming a bit confused as to the direction of the conversation.

"So what happens if the prince is gay? Would he get another prince? Or would he fall in love with the knight?” Sora mentally cringed, remembering that when they were kids he and Riku would frequently play games where Sora was a prince and Riku was a knight. His knight...

Riku shrugged. “I guess that depends on the prince,” he said, looking at Sora with an amused and somewhat fond expression that made Sora’s heart skip a beat. “Why?”

“Oh, um, I was just thinking a lot about yesterday’s conversation…” Sora’s eyes met Riku’s, and he could swear a spark shot between them.

At that moment, Kairi appeared. “Whatcha talkin about?” the redhead chimed, a spring in her step.

Both boys blushed and said “Nothing!” at the exact same moment.

“Ooooh?” Kairi asked. “Su-spi-cious!”

Thankfully Selphie, Tidus, and Wakka joined them before Kairi could pry any further. Selphie brought news about some fashion thing Kairi seemed not very interested in, but Kairi listened anyway. The two girls had grown close over the years the boys were away. Tidus and Wakka talked about blitzball, trying to pull Sora and Riku into the conversation only to become annoyed when neither boy knew what they were talking about, Sora especially. Sora loved playing blitzball, but never had liked to watch it much nor followed the stats. Riku was similar in that regard, but did generally know the basics thanks to his dad always having the sports channel on in the background, so he could follow the conversation even if he hadn’t seen any of the specific games they were talking about.

Sora’s thoughts began to wander again, until he spotted something up ahead, behind a bush. He squinted at it; a spiky shadow? Again? Should he check it out? Running ahead would draw attention to himself, especially if nothing was there. He waited until they were almost right next to the bush, then jumped to look behind it. Nothing.

“Sora?” Kairi asked.

“Sorry, thought I saw something. It was just a rabbit.”

Riku and Kairi both nodded, reading between the lines; they too got jumpy when they heard unknown noises or saw bushes moving, Riku more so than Kairi, too used to things jumping out to attack. Of course, neither suspected that Sora actually had seen what appeared to be an actual heartless, to Sora’s knowledge. But why was it vanishing? Was it hiding? Following him? But why would it follow him? Surveillance? Could heartless even be used for such? Nobodies could be. Sora really hoped it was just his imagination…

As they entered the school, a teacher signaled Sora over to her. His history teacher, perfect. He’d almost forgotten that he skipped that class yesterday. Sora bid farewell to his friends—his locker was in a different wing anyway—and approached the teacher. As expected, she immediately directed Sora towards the principal’s office.

Sora received lunch detention and a lecture about responsibility and attendance, as he had predicted. He accepted the punishment meekly, then dragged his feet to his locker and then to his homeroom. He was late, which got him stares, then whispers when he told the teacher it was because he was at the principal’s office.

Three days back to school, and Sora already had developed a reputation as a bit of a delinquent, skipping class and not paying attention to the teacher and causing disturbances… This caused a fair amount of gossip, as Sora used to be a well-behaved student despite his ultra-friendliness and hyperactivity. He had daydreamed and became easily distracted before, sure, but at least he’d tried to pay attention. Overall Sora used to be happy to go to school, eager to see his friends if not learn. Yet he had returned, from what his classmates saw, as a surly, quiet, and reclusive kid who didn’t want to be at school, broke the rules, and pushed himself away from everyone. Sora didn’t push people away intentionally, but no one understood what he’d been through. He felt disconnected from them, could no longer relate. It was difficult to slip back into the school’s social scene, because he knew nothing about anything the kids were talking about. There was too much to catch up on. School now seemed irrelevant in the big picture, at least the things they were learning. This was not at all what Sora had imagined things would feel like after returning to the islands. Maybe he shouldn’t have returned.

  
  


∞♣♥☼♥♣∞

  
  
Contrary to what Sora had expected, overall the school day had actually been going pretty well. He didn’t fall asleep in his first period class (which he’d discovered was literature), he didn’t get yelled at once for daydreaming in biology, no heartless had appeared in the garden, he remembered not to run in the hallways, and he had baked and decorated cookies without incident.

Alas, the peace could not last. Almost as soon as Sora reached his gym locker, the two larger boys caught his eye. Sora froze. They sneered and made some sort of gesture Sora didn’t recognize, but he got the idea. Sora took his gym clothes to the bathroom and changed there. Sora vaguely noted a few other students snickering, but dismissed it—they were probably laughing at other conversations, not Sora. There was no way that many students would be as hateful as those two boys, right?

Gym class used to be his favorite subject, but if it was going to be like this every time… Sora shook the thought off. The class itself was fine; it was just the locker room that was the issue. He just had to get in and out quickly, change in the bathroom—plenty of people did so for various reasons, so Sora wouldn’t actually stand out by doing such—and the boys wouldn’t be an issue.

The class itself that day was just running around the track since there was a substitute, which was easy for Sora. He kept a comfortable pace, having plenty of stamina. He made sure not to go too fast; taking two years off of school only to return faster than the entire track team would look suspicious. It was actually pretty relaxing.

Sora waved to Kairi and Riku as he passed them by; they were eating lunch in the bleachers again. But a moment later, Sora lurched forwards as he tripped over something, falling face-first onto the track. He turned around to see the obstacle, but there was nothing there. He then heard some laughing as he stood up and brushed himself off; he looked to see the two boys from the locker room jogging ahead with a couple girls. So it was more than just the two. Sora glanced at Riku and Kairi, who looked worried, but Sora just gave them a wave to say it was fine and began jogging again. Noticing a sting in his palm, Sora looked down and realized he’d skinned it. He wasn’t used to not wearing protective gloves. Glancing around to make sure no one was looking, Sora used a quick cure spell and wiped the blood on his shorts.

After class, Sora ran right to the locker room, not bothering to talk to Riku and Kairi as they’d just ask him concerned questions. Plus, he needed to change quickly to avoid the boys; he didn’t want to be caught alone with them again!

Thankfully he avoided any incident before heading over to detention. Basically, lunch detention involved sitting at a specific table in the combined cafeteria/auditorium to eat, no talking. After eating, one worked on homework. It wasn’t actually that bad—it wasn’t like Sora had anyone to spend lunch with anyway. Not even Tidus was in his lunch period, as his elective was this period so he had the first of the three lunch periods, during Sora’s cooking class. So Sora was alone regardless, thus would probably have ended up using lunch to do his homework anyway. That, or go for another walk, which had not worked out very well the previous day and Sora didn’t trust himself enough for that to not happen again.

Sora picked at his lunch a little, then turned to his homework. As Sora worked on his math homework—due next period, talk about last minute, but he had forgotten about it—he felt someone watching him. Or something? Sora glanced around, then noticed eyes in the darkness where the curtain for the stage met the wall. Two sets this time. Sora stared for a moment, then put his hands over his eyes as he leaned his elbows on the table and pressed hard. He was imagining it. He had to be.

A ruler slapped next to him, and Sora jumped. “No sleeping!” said the teacher sharply. The super-strict biology one who loved rulers, of course, was the teacher running detention today.

“I wasn’t sleeping!” Sora hissed.

“Quiet, or you’ll get more detention,” the teacher warned, tapping the ruler on his hand before returning to his seat. Sora was sure that if the school allowed it, that teacher would be smacking more than just desks and tables with that ruler.

Sora glanced back towards the stage, but the eyes were gone.


	3. Chapter 3

Riku lowered his head to his desk, unable to focus on the lecture his teacher was giving. Which was not good, considering Riku was not so great at math… especially compared to Sora, who had somehow managed to learn advanced math through GummiShip maintenance and magical theory—it was a little embarrassing, actually, as now Sora was the one helping Riku with his homework in the subject; it was strange, as Riku had always been the one helping him and Kairi in all subjects, as he used to be a year ahead of them. Still was in Sora’s case in the other subjects, but it was strange being in the same grade as Kairi for all classes.

Anyway, the reason Riku wasn’t able to concentrate was the aforementioned Sora. There was no doubt about it; those bullies had tripped him in gym class. Then when class was over, Sora had run off, not even giving Riku and Kairi a glance—clearly he knew they would ask him about it. Riku really hoped that Sora didn’t skip the rest of school again; chances are he probably wouldn’t, considering he’d be in detention right now, but still. Riku couldn’t bear to think of Sora out there on his own again feeling sad—he’d seen the tear tracks yesterday.

Someone poked Riku in the shoulder, and he gave a violent flinch before realizing it was just Kairi. Thank the gods they sat in the back of the class; no one seemed to notice. Riku flinched at things a lot, always on high alert even though he knew the Islands were fairly safe. Well, safe from supernatural things. There was no need to be on edge. But after years of fighting, who could blame him? In every shadow there could be a heartless, every rustle of bushes could hold a nobody. Every unexpected touch could be an attack.

“Sorry,” Kairi whispered, realizing. “Just reminding you to pay attention.” She turned back to face the teacher, who either hadn’t noticed the exchange or chose to ignore it.

Riku concentrated on the board, where the teacher was writing out examples of the math problems. Something about limits approaching infinity that confused Riku immensely but Sora probably somehow understood completely… yeah, he’d definitely be needing to ask the brunette for help on this. If this was what pre-calculus was like, Riku couldn’t imagine what actual calculus entailed. Well, at least they had the option to take statistics instead, so hopefully that would be more understandable, even though the rumors said that it was even more confusing and had a stricter teacher. That was even if they were still around at that point; Mickey had said they’d probably be needed eventually. Riku wasn’t sure if he hoped ‘eventually’ was sooner or later—he wanted to get out of school, sure, but if they were needed enough to warrant intentionally dropping out, something bad would undoubtedly be happening.

Kairi prodded Riku again, and he shook himself out of his small stupor. What was going on with him today? He usually never lacked focus like this. Lack of attention was Sora’s thing… Sora. Riku’s thoughts once again drifted back to the boy, now to the conversation from a few hours prior as they’d walked to school. Princes and Knights… had Sora intentionally alluded to the games they had played as kids? He had been blushing an awful lot… And then… had Riku imagined the spark between them? Riku’s self-doubt began creeping in, telling him that it wasn’t possible for Sora to like him that way, but Riku bit that back and tried to look at things from a more objective point of view. Kairi certainly had noticed something. Was it obvious? Riku was sure his feelings were on full display; probably always had been. But Sora, as Riku gathered from the previous day’s conversation, had no clue that being gay was even possible. Except… had he? He hadn’t used that word. He had used ‘allowed’. Had Sora thought about that before, then dismissed it because he assumed it simply wasn’t something people should do? Riku had had similar struggles, but a long time ago; he’d realized he was gay at the age of ten—then promptly hid it, because his mom had not been happy with that. Riku was glad they’d cut contact. Anyway, although Riku had known he liked boys since he was young, it had still taken him embarrassingly long to realize—or rather, admit—that what he felt for Sora was more than friendship. Was Sora coming to a similar realization? He clearly no longer was crushing on Kairi, although it was possible Riku’s jealousy had invented that in the first place. Sora himself had admitted he’d barely thought about romance before… should Riku allow himself to hope Sora would fall—or maybe had already fallen—for him? If Sora’s reaction to finding Kairi versus finding Riku were any indication… 

BRRRRNNNNGGG!

Riku jumped as the bell rang, signaling the end of class. Riku quickly copied down the homework from the board and gathered his things.

Kairi giggled next to him. “Thinking about Sora?” she asked teasingly, in a whisper. Yup, she definitely suspected something.

“Shut up,” Riku said with a blush as he swung his bag around his shoulders and headed to his next class with Kairi—well, technically with her, though it felt like it wasn’t. Selphie was in the class, which meant Kairi chatted with her the whole time and automatically became her lab partner whenever they had to team up. Riku vaguely wondered if there was something more to that than friendship… 

  
  


∞♣♥☼♥♣∞

“Sora, what happened in gym?” Riku asked Sora on the way home. It was just them, no one else this time; Wakka and Tidus had blitzball practice, and Selphie and Kairi both had tennis. Kairi had been in cheerleading the previous year, but had missed tryouts this year due to being, well, kidnapped. Selphie had been a cheerleader too, but when Kairi returned she’d quit and joined the tennis team with her. Sora felt a bit odd about that. Before the islands fell, Kairi had been friendly with Selphie but generally stuck with Sora and Riku. Now it almost seemed to be the opposite… Sora supposed it was understandable; he had been a fool for expecting that Kairi would return right to them after they’d been gone for so long. Of course she would have made new friends that she was now closer with… a new best friend. And that was a good thing! Sora would have felt really bad if Kairi had been alone that whole time. It still hurt a little though.

“Sora?” Riku prodded, knocking Sora out of his thoughts. Realizing that Sora hadn’t been paying attention, Riku repeated the question. “What happened in gym?”

“What do you mean?” Sora asked, heart thumping slightly. He didn’t want Riku asking him about that! He was handling things fine. No need to worry Riku.

“It looked like those boys tripped you.”

“Really?” Sora asked, playing at confusion. “You must have seen it wrong. I was just distracted, tripped over a bump in the asphalt.”

Riku looked at Sora as though trying to judge if Sora was telling the truth. “If you say so,” he finally said, dropping the subject, although Sora couldn’t tell if Riku believed him or not.

The subject matter drifted to their classes. Riku was explaining how his chemistry class did some sort of lab where they made different color fires—which was really neat and made Sora a little jealous that his grade’s science class was stupid biology when Riku and Kairi got to do things with fire—when he saw something up ahead on a dock. A heartless? Like the little spiky shadows, this one resembled a species of heartless, but with some variation. It reminded him of a cross between a neoshadow and a soldier, tall with a slightly more humanoid shape. It had large claws and long slanted red eyes, like someone had carved slashes in the side of its head. It was staring right at Sora, as though waiting for him to make the first move.

So, Sora did. He gave a shout and ran over. The heartless slithered under the dock, and Sora drew his keyblade as he followed, only to find… nothing.

“Sora, what’s wrong?” Riku asked, catching up to him, keyblade also drawn in reaction to Sora drawing his.

Sora dismissed his keyblade. “Nothing, I guess. I thought I saw something, but whatever it is, it’s gone now…” Sora sighed. “Sorry.”

Riku put his hand on Sora’s shoulder, noting Sora’s slight dejectedness. “Hey, it’s okay. We’re all pretty jumpy after what happened.” 

Sora nodded. “Right, yeah,” he said, although he was pretty sure that they weren’t actually seeing heartless everywhere when they weren’t there. Or were they there? Sora couldn’t be sure, but he didn’t want to ask.

“Come on, let’s go hang out at my place,” Riku suggested.

“Oh!” Sora grabbed onto this new subject eagerly. “Yeah, that sounds great! Will your sister be there?” he asked, and started to walk towards their houses with a bounce in his step.

“She should be,” Riku told him, smiling. Riku had adapted well to having a sibling, and seemed to quite enjoy it. He was just as protective of her as he was to Sora . Sora was overjoyed about the baby, too; neither he nor Riku had ever had a sibling, so it was pretty exciting.

“Then let’s go!” Sora said excitedly, grabbing Riku’s hand to get him to move faster, only realizing that maybe Riku wasn’t okay with that after he had done so. But Riku wasn’t complaining, rather… blushing? Hmm. Sora grinned broadly at Riku and dragged him along for a bit before their steps aligned again. Sora didn’t let go of Riku’s hand the rest of the way to his house.

  
  


∞♣♥☼♥♣∞

Riku sighed. “Sora, you’re supposed to be working on homework,” he pointed out, though he sounded more amused than anything.

“But your sister is so adorable!” Sora cooed. Sora was playing catch with the little girl, named Hikari. Well, sort-of. Sora was rolling a baseball across the floor to her, and she was rolling it back; the toddler wasn’t strong enough to actually throw it yet, at least not accurately.

“What’s that?” the girl asked suddenly, pointing to something near Sora. She was just learning to talk, so constantly wanted to know what everything was. 

Sora turned, ready to answer, then froze. Next to Sora was one of the spindly heartless. Was that what the girl was seeing? No, that was impossible; the thing was only visible to him. Riku certainly didn’t see it, or else he’d have said something, considering he was watching the two playing… Right, Hikari couldn’t have seen it. Sora turned to look behind it. “That’s called a chair,” Sora said.

“Not chair!” the girl exclaimed. “Like doggy, not doggy. What’s that?”

Wait. So Hikari WAS somehow seeing the heartless thing?! Did that mean it wasn’t an illusion after all? But then why couldn’t Riku see it?

“There’s nothing else there?” Sora said tepidly.

“Yes there!” she insisted, becoming upset. “What’s that?”

Riku stared at where the girl was pointing too, brow furrowed. “Is she imagining something?” he wondered. Okay, so there was the confirmation Riku couldn’t see it.

“No! There! Black not-doggy!” She pointed more firmly. 

The creature tilted its head as though curious, and took a few steps closer to investigate. This was apparently the wrong choice.

“Aaaah!” the girl screamed. “Away, away!” she moved her hands in front of her, waving them. The creature froze as something materialized in the girl’s hand… 

“What. The. Fuck.” Riku proclaimed.

“Holy shit,” Sora echoed.

In Hikari’s little hand sat a miniature keyblade, entirely white with gold striations, an angel-wing handle, and a tip in the shape of a spiky half-sun, hollow in the center. Those points looked incredibly sharp… 

“Ummm. What do we do, Riku?!” Sora wondered, trying to stay calm.

“I don’t know!” Riku replied, jumping up. “No one warned me toddlers could summon keyblades!”

Hikari had completely forgotten the heartless, which had been joined by another and was hiding behind Sora, in exchange for joyously waving around her new keyblade. Neither boy could hope to get close without getting injured unless they used their own keyblades… Riku’s dad might know what to do, but he’d used the opportunity of the boys being there to go to the mall the next island over, so wouldn’t be back for at least another hour… Oh! Maybe Kairi would know? She was good with kids.

Sora told Riku this and then ran to the phone, hurriedly dialing Kairi’s number.

“Hey, Riku, what’s up?” Kairi answered. Right, she had caller ID.

“Not Riku, Sora,” Sora told her hurriedly. “Riku’s sister summoned a keyblade and is waving it around and we don’t know how to get it away from her please help,” he said in a rush.

“Whoa, slow down, I only caught half that!” Kairi said. “Did you say Riku’s sister summoned a KEYBLADE?”

“Yes!” Sora exclaimed. “It’s a really spiky and sharp looking one, too! How does that even happen?! Doesn’t someone have to pass it to her or something?”

Kairi was quiet upon hearing that.

“Kairi?”

“Um. I might have showed her my keyblade, and she might have touched it, and it might have glowed when she did…”

“What the fuck, Kairi?!”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know it could do that!” Kairi said. “The memory of that happening to me as a kid only returned after that happened; if I’d known I wouldn’t have held it so close to her!”

“Wait. YOU summoned one as a kid too?!”

“No!” Kairi denied. “Actually, I don’t know! I just have a very vague memory of meeting a girl with a keyblade, and her keyblade glowed like that. If I did summon it it’s in my missing memories, because I know I definitely did not summon it between losing my memories and fighting in The World That Never Was.”

“Okay… well, Riku got his passed down when we were little too, and also never summoned it until the Islands fell, so maybe passing it to kids isn’t unusual? But then why did she summon it when you two never did?”

“Well, maybe it has something to do with danger? All three of us first summoned it when we were being attacked by darkness.”

“But she wasn’t being attacked by darkness,” Sora explained. Although Sora wasn’t sure if the creature was dark or not, he knew it didn’t mean any harm. It was just curious… wait. How did he know that? “Anyway, can you get over here? I don’t know how to calm her down and neither does Riku!”

“And you think I can?”

“Well, yeah! You do babysitting, right?”

“Yes but none of the kids I sit have keyblades!”

  
  


∞♣♥☼♥♣∞

Riku lay in bed, hands behind his head and staring up at the ceiling. He turned over the day’s events in his mind. His sister had a keyblade. If someone told him a month ago that he’d have a baby sister who could wield a keyblade and do magic, he’d have laughed in their face—first at the fact that he’d have a sister, then at a toddler being able to have a keyblade. Yet, that was the situation Riku found himself in. Miraculously Kairi had been able to calm Hikari, but not after half the living room was destroyed with wind magic. Riku’s dad had come home in the midst of all the chaos, completely floored as to what he was seeing. Then he was literally sent to the floor, along with everyone else, by what Riku was pretty sure was an aeroza spell from his sister combined with a gravity spell by Sora, who had decided to try subduing her that way. Unfortunately, that instead merely caused the old CRT TV to implode, sending glass everywhere… Thankfully cure magic existed, although it released a smoke that Riku really hoped was not toxic… anyway. The sound of it caused Hikari to freak out even more, but Kairi somehow prevailed despite this as Riku’s dad went to let the curious neighbors know that the loud noise was not a gunshot.

Kairi had to run back to her place before her parents arrived home—they were super strict, especially after everything that had happened—while Sora stayed over to have dinner (which had been the plan anyway, as his mom was running a book club at the library). They ordered pizza, since although Riku and his dad both tried to eat healthily—especially with Sora around, as he never had the best diet— there was no way they were going to try to cook after that whole debacle.

Riku pondered that. Kairi’s parents had always been strict, but they’d only gotten more so after the Islands fell. By contrast, Riku’s dad had loosened up. He’d always been more of the middle ground of the trio’s parents, but now he was nearly as lax as Sora’s mom. Riku wasn’t sure if she was a believer in free-range parenting or just absentminded and easygoing. Probably a combination. From what Riku had gathered over the years, her parents—whom Sora had never met—had been extremely strict like Kairi’s, and something had happened to cause her to stop speaking to them. Her insistence on giving Sora freedom was most likely in response to that. 

Speaking of Sora… what had happened earlier, before they got home? Sora had seen something and went to attack, but there was nothing there. Normally Riku wouldn’t think much of it, as they all had been pretty jumpy at every rustle of leaves or movement of trees, but this had been in the open. There was nothing to mistake something for. Had Sora actually seen something? Was there something he could see but Riku couldn’t, or had whatever it was slinked away before Riku had a chance to see? Riku shook his head. If it were of concern, Sora would tell him… right? Right. Sora might be trying to hide being tripped, but he wouldn’t hide it if he saw an actual enemy… would he? No, definitely not.

And then, the hand holding… Riku’s stomach did a small flip at the thought. At first Riku just thought Sora had been excited, but then the brunette had kept holding on, even when he’d calmed and they were walking in peaceful silence… Riku had to work extremely hard to hide his blush, which he was pretty sure he’d failed at, although he noticed Sora had a faint blush too… was Riku getting his hopes up too much? Did Riku even care? He felt giddy at the thought of holding Sora’s hand again. Should he wait to see if Sora initiated it again, or try to initiate it himself?

They’d have to be careful though, given the social climate of the Islands, especially if Sora was already being bullied on mere suspicion of such. Riku didn’t want to make things worse. If only Sora would give him more details instead of trying to hide it… as it were, Riku could only hope that whoever the bullies were got bored. If he knew exactly who they were, he’d definitely threaten them… although Riku wasn’t supposed to use any non-average-human abilities because of World Order, so could he? The ones who had tripped Sora had been too far away to see any distinct features to identify, but they were large. Riku was taller than Sora—most boys in the school were—but those boys were definitely both taller and wider than Riku. Without using magic and special skills, Riku doubted he could fight them and win, especially both together. He certainly wouldn’t be able to intimidate them… maybe he could use a little darkness to look scarier. If they didn’t know he was using magic, was that against the rules? Maybe Riku should try doing more strength training… no, definitely not, Riku decided, immediately dismissing that thought. He liked how he looked. If he got buffer, he might start looking like Ansem again. Well, probably not, as that guy had also been significantly taller and darker, but the fear was still there. He could try reporting the bullies, but the school system was notorious for its ‘boys will be boys’ attitude towards bullying, even if their official stance was that they were strict about it—a stance that only came up when there were serious incidents, which Riku sincerely hoped there wouldn’t be. Well, none of this would be feasible unless he knew who the boys were, anyway.

Riku sighed at the ceiling, which was peppered by glowing star stickers that he and Sora had stuck on there when they were kids. Why did everything seem so much more complicated now that they were finished fighting bad guys and stopping world-changing events? He’d thought everything was supposed to be peaceful, simple, and safe now that they were back, but it was feeling like the opposite.


	4. Chapter 4

The rest of the week and half the following one went pretty well, Sora thought. Sora only got scolded for failing to pay attention twice, although he did get lunch detention again for getting a third strike for running in the hallways. 

Saturday Sora had spent time with Kairi, Tidus, Selphie, and Wakka at Selphie’s practically-a-mansion, along with six or seven other people Sora didn’t know, who turned out to be from the tennis team; a small party, basically, featuring Selphie’s huge new pool—she’d had one before, but this one, which replaced it, was twice the size with an attached hot tub. Sora received confused looks at refusing to go into the pool despite everyone knowing he loved to swim, but Sora didn’t want to answer questions about why he had a big scar over his heart. He did stick his feet in though. Riku had been invited too but he had to watch his sister; Sora volunteered to help but Riku insisted Sora go to Selphie’s instead—apparently Kairi had noticed that Sora had been pushing the others away and was concerned about it. Sora wished she had told him that herself, but he knew Kairi just didn’t want to upset him. He was glad Riku told him though; Sora didn’t really want to push them away. It was just difficult to reconnect. 

Sunday Sora had spent partly with his mom going clothes shopping (again; his mom loved clothes, and thus decided that even though she’d bought him lots of stuff when he returned Sora still needed more) and partly with Riku and Kairi playing a new video game Sora had seen at the mall. It turned out to not be a very good game, but they had fun together anyway, which is what mattered.

Riku kept letting Sora hold his hand when they walked, which Sora really enjoyed. Riku even grabbed Sora’s hand a couple times too! Only when alone though. Neither discussed it, rather seemed to have a tacit agreement that hand holding was nice but only when others couldn’t see. After all, they were both acutely aware of what people thought of two boys doing such, or at least Sora was; Sora didn’t want to get teased by people for it, especially that group from gym. He even shook away Riku’s hand when Kairi showed up, even though Sora knew she wouldn’t judge.

Sora still saw illusions of the strange heartless around on occasion, but he largely managed to ignore them. A few had spooked him, but he didn’t summon his keyblade, and they always disappeared when he looked away. He just had to be careful that he didn’t react too badly, or else people might start to suspect something was wrong and get unnecessarily concerned. He knew they were definitely illusions because Riku never reacted to them, even though he could sense darkness. Plus, one had stood right in front of him while they played video games, and neither Riku nor Kairi mentioned it, which they surely would have if they had seen it, especially as it was the new spiky kind. That one, aside from the creature on the dock, had been the most vivid of them. Most other heartless he saw were brief glimpses in the corner of his eye, ones that ducked out of the way as soon as Sora noticed, moving shadows, or glowing eyes peering at him from the darkness. So, he wouldn’t mention it; besides, even if they were real after all it’d be no issue for Sora to beat them on his own. So, yeah, it was fine. Nobody had to know.

Sora was still being teased a little in gym class, but hadn’t been caught alone with the boys again, and nothing physical like tripping had happened, so that was fine too, Sora told himself. Yeah, he got threatening looks if he didn’t immediately head to the bathroom to change, and the gang would say mean things when the teacher wasn’t listening, but Sora could ignore them. It was fine. Sora was fine.

Sora thought about this one day in gym class, as they once again had a substitute thus were running the track (according to Selphie, that happened at least once a week—rumor had it that the sophomore-class gym teacher took so much time off because he was planning on retiring, so was trying to use up his banked vacation time before then). Sora was growing tired quicker than he typically did, and had been less focused than usual the whole day. Part of that was due to being tired, as nightmares had plagued him the night before, but that had happened many times before. Too many times before. Something they didn’t tell you about being a hero was all the trauma it came with. Anyway, the point is he was used to being tired. But this… maybe he was getting sick. 

Sora realized he’d started to slow, barely paying attention to his surroundings as lost in his thoughts as he was. Sora shook himself slightly and started to increase his speed. Well, at least Kairi and Riku weren’t watching yet today; Kairi was meeting Selphie for lunch (perhaps Sora’s mom had been onto something) and Riku had volunteered, along with some others, to stay after class to help the teacher clean the classroom during the first half of lunch.

Suddenly, something slammed into Sora, sending him tumbling over.

“Hey, watch where you’re going!” the mean blonde-haired boy said, looking offended.

Sora was confused by this as he scrambled up, wincing a little as his knee hurt from how he had fallen. The angle had been completely wrong for him to be at fault. “You’re the one who hit me,” Sora pointed out, before realizing that maybe he should have just shut up.

“Oh yeah? You think I’d willingly touch a fag like you, huh? Bet you’d sure like that, huh?” he pushed Sora, and Sora stumbled back, nearly toppling over again; he needed to heal his knee.

The two girls who were often seen with the boy giggled. Sora turned to try to move away, but stumbled down. He vaguely noticed two little spiky heartless trying to attack the kids, but nothing came of it. They weren’t corporeal after all, although Sora kinda wished they were right now...

A whistle sounded a few times as the substitute gym teacher jogged over. “What’s going on here?” she asked sharply.

“He fell. We were helping him,” said one of the girls in a saccharine show of innocence.

Sora didn’t bother claiming otherwise; he didn’t want further conflict, and the look the guy was giving said that if Sora argued there would be hell to pay. Once satisfied Sora wouldn’t say anything, the boy and girls jogged off.

“Do you need the nurse?” the teacher asked, worried as she noticed Sora’s wobble as he tried standing.

Sora shook his head. “I think my knee is just bruised. I’ll be fine.”

“Well, okay. But you’re certainly not running; go sit in the bleachers. Work on stretching or something. Maybe even take a nap; you look very tired.”

“Okay,” Sora said, and headed towards the bleachers without protest.

Once he sat down, Sora inspected his knee, which had an angry welt starting to form as well as a few scrapes. Sora looked around and then subtly used a small water spell to clean it and then a cure spell to heal it and any other wounds on him. Sora winced in sight pain as the knee healed; seems like there had been a hairline fracture, too. Broken bones always hurt when the magic set them. The pain subsided into a refreshing warmth, and then it was as though the wound was never there.

Sora yawned; maybe it was a good time for a nap. Sora laid down sideways on the bleacher; he had learned how to sleep anywhere during his journeys. After just a minute, Sora was fast asleep.

Sora woke to someone anxiously shaking his shoulder. He could sense who it was though, so Sora didn’t leap into attack mode like he otherwise would.

“Huh? What’s going on?” Sora wondered as he slowly sat up, blinking sleep out of his eyes. He wondered if he had slept through gym, but no, the kids were still there running/walking around the track.

Riku sat next to Sora, holding a Star Wars lunch box. “You tell me. How come you’re sitting here?”

Sora yawned. “Oh, I fell and hurt my knee,” he explained. “I cured it though!” he said quickly, noting Riku’s look of worry. “But the teacher saw before I could, so she told me to sit out to rest. So I can’t just suddenly go back running like I’m fine even though I am.”

“Looks like you do need the rest, though,” Riku commented. “There’re huge bags under your eyes.”

Sora yawned again. “Yeah, I didn’t sleep well.”

“Nightmares?”

Sora nodded. “Yup.”

Riku sighed. “Yeah, I feel you. Sometimes I wish I could go back and tell my younger self that seeing the worlds is a bad idea, at least in the way he decided to. Never thought adventure would come with so many downsides.”

“Hey, there was good stuff, too,” Sora argued. “Although I get that. Definitely could have chosen a better way to go adventuring… then again, we became better people for it, right?”

Riku was quiet for a moment. “Did we though?”

Sora scoffed. “Well, you certainly did, Mister Angst.”

Riku laughed at that. “Hey, I was fifteen, all teens go through a moody period at that age!”

“‘Moody’ is an understatement,” Sora said with a laugh. “Maybe it’s a good thing I slept through most of fifteen, then. I got to skip that!”

“You, having a jealousy-fueled angst phase?” Riku said, amused. “Sora, I’ve seen butterflies with more angst than you.”

Sora frowned. “Really? I don’t think I’ve ever seen an angry butterfly.”

Riku raised an eyebrow and Sora started laughing. He felt a lot better than he had earlier. Then again, Riku being around always made everything feel better. Sora vaguely wondered why only Riku seemed to have that effect on him.

“Hey, are you going to eat your lunch? There’s not much time left,” Sora reminded Riku. 

Riku looked at the watch on his wrist. “Nah, there’s still twenty minutes, I’m good. Why, are you hungry?” Riku opened his lunch box, revealing a sandwich and various more healthy snacks like fruits and carrot sticks. It completely contrasted Sora’s own lunch, full of chips and cookies… which he’d forgotten at home, Sora realized. Well, there was a pizza shop nearby.

Sora shook his head and said “Not really,” then blushed as his stomach growled loudly to belie those words.

Riku frowned. “When did you last eat?”

Sora shrugged in response. He honestly wasn’t sure; Sora tried to think back to when he’d last eaten. He’d been running late that morning, so hadn’t had breakfast, which happened roughly half the time. Had he had dinner? His mom had been out, so it’d been up to him to get it himself, and he’d been immersed in a video game…

Something they didn’t tell you about constant travelling was how much it could affect bodily functions such as one’s sense of hunger. Sora’s eating habits had grown abnormal over the past couple years, as tended to happen when one went adventuring between worlds with various time axes and levels of civilization. The concept of ‘three square meals a day’ became a myth—one got food when one could, which sometimes meant going quite a while without (for example, Halloween Town had food that wasn’t fit for human consumption, and Deep Jungle had only possibly-toxic things around until they found Jane, who could identify them; also, sometimes they had to fight for hours straight if a world was swarming with heartless, no time for food). As a result of all of that, their eating patterns had become so disordered that Sora’s stomach didn’t know when to feel hungry anymore… or rather, Sora had gotten so used to it that even when his stomach grumbled it didn’t bother him enough to notice. This might be fine for someone who could keep a regular schedule, but Sora never could do such. Growing up, Sora would often skip meals by accident, as a result of getting distracted or getting too involved in something to notice the passage of time. That hadn’t changed. However, what had changed was that his stomach used to remind him to eat when that happened too many times in a row, which it no longer did. Riku, of course, had experienced similar, but unlike Sora he didn’t have a messed-up sense of time, easily able to keep a schedule and notice if it was meal time even if immersed in a project. Honestly Sora was rather jealous of that.

“Here,” Riku said, handing Sora an apple. “Eat.”

“No, that’s okay, I have lunch soon. You need to eat too.”

“I didn’t skip breakfast,” Riku said, prodding Sora’s shoulder with the apple. Sora blushed slightly at how Riku had noticed that, as he’d done too many times to count over the years. He probably suspected Sora had skipped dinner, too. Riku had always been taking care of him like that, which was good because Sora’s mom had similar issues with time management so often didn’t notice either, causing them both to skip meals during times they both were focused on something (for all of Sora’s lack of focus on other things, such as school, he could get extremely—and dangerously—focused when it was something he actually enjoyed). Sora probably inherited that from her. Riku, of course, knew this well.

“Fine,” Sora said, accepting the apple. “This better not have a sleeping curse or something, though!”

Riku rolled his eyes, though he was smiling. “Sora, I’m not an evil witch.”

“No, but you worked for one,” Sora quipped.

“Okay, first, she was a fairy…”

“To/may/to, to/mah/to...” Sora yawned again, and leaned against Riku’s side. 

A couple of rabbit-like heartless-things (armless with huge ears that might possibly double as hands from the looks of them) watched from the edge of the field. Huh. Those were new. Sora yawned again and let his weight fall fully onto Riku, ignoring them.

  
  


∞♣♥☼♥♣∞

Sora, having the advantage of not being on the field, was able to get to the locker room ahead of the class, changing quickly and leaving for lunch before the bullies could get there. Because that’s what was happening, Sora realized belatedly: he was being bullied. He hated that he couldn’t do anything about it. A blizzard spell in the face surely would stop them, but stupid “World Order” barred him from doing such, and loathe as he was to admit it, Sora wasn’t strong enough to physically overpower those huge boys despite all the fighting he’d done. He had generally relied on quick but weak physical attacks, supplemented with more powerful magic and special attacks to finish enemies, not brute strength. It just made more sense to fight that way due to his size. Maybe next time he saw Goofy he should ask about how to increase his physical stats more, as Goofy relied mostly on strength.

Should Sora tell someone about that? Or would reporting it only cause the bullies to step things up? Come to think about it, would seeing Sora in the bleachers with Riku encourage them, too? Riku had put his arm around Sora’s shoulders when Sora leaned against him. It was a natural reaction, done since they were kids, but still. Sora should be more careful about that. Should Sora simply be careful not to do it, or should he discuss it with Riku? He didn’t want to upset Riku and cause the silverette to think he didn’t like the affection. Sora preened at the affection Riku gave him. He didn’t want that to stop… just, stop where people could see, especially those bullies.

No, wait, discussing things would just make Riku suspicious and worried. Sora would just have to distance himself while in public, and hope Riku understood, like he did with the hand-holding. He wouldn’t tell anyone, either. He didn’t want to seem weak and pitiable; he could take it. This was his problem.

Sora arrived at the pizza shop, which was fairly crowded with students, as usual. The line went down quickly despite this, as most tended to order the premade things: not only did that mean pre-sliced pizzas of all different types, but they also made big batches of pasta and sandwiches in anticipation for the student lunch rush, as this was the most popular of the five food places near the school, the others being a cafe, a franchise burger place, a nicer sit-down restaurant more popular with teachers than students, and a fish-and-chips place. These were also basically the only five restaurants any of those living on the small island went to (well, there was one more, but it was a super fancy seafood place), as the other food places were along the boardwalk (which thankfully was on the opposite side as the school) and constantly flooded with tourists. Sora usually didn’t leave the school grounds for lunch, preferring to pack a lunch or order the cheaper cafeteria things, as going out only served as a reminder that he was alone as typically students went downtown in groups.

Sora got a couple of slices of pizza (one topped with pineapple and ham and the other piled with mushrooms, peppers, sausage, and onions, as he couldn’t decide which he wanted and people had been getting impatient) as well as a bag of chips and a can of soda. He then headed to a small park nearby that contained a fountain, a few monuments, a playground, and a few flower beds. He sat on the edge of the large circular stone fountain that featured a few stone dolphins spitting out water.

The fountain reminded Sora of the one in Radiant Garden, although not really because that fountain had been a star shape and the center looked a bit like a rook in chess. It did have beds of flowers around it though, and he had eaten lunch once while sitting on it… wait. Fountain in Radiant Garden? Had there been a fountain there? Why was Sora remembering sitting at a fountain that didn’t exist? Weird.

“Why is everything so confusing?” Sora wondered aloud to the two rabbit-like heartless that had settled down next to him. 

Sora realized he hadn’t really touched his food yet, and began to nibble on the pizza a bit. He set it down after a moment, lost in thought as he stared at the rabbits.

Now that he had a better look, with the creatures remaining still, Sora noticed that the rabbits had an unfamiliar symbol adorning them. Did that mean they weren’t heartless after all? Sora had just assumed they were heartless; the spindly type didn’t have any symbols, just like shadow heartless, and everything else had moved too fast to get good looks at the symbols, so it hadn’t occurred to them that they could be different until now.

Sora pondered this. If they weren’t heartless, what were they? Should he ask someone about them, see if they knew of anything with similar marks? The sigils were vaguely heart-shaped like heartless symbols, but spikier, and instead of the fleur-de-lis on the bottom the lines of the heart crossed each other to flare out. Similarly, the cross in the center was an extension of the heart outline instead of a separate item, though tapered instead of flared, and the curves of the heart had two spiked flares on either side. If there was a symbol that represented darkness, that would be it, Sora thought. But… these things weren’t attacking. Aside from the coloration (black with red and purple highlights), they didn’t look very dark. In fact, they were kinda cute. Their eye shapes made them look more sad than anything. They were also in his mind, so reporting them would just reveal that he was hallucinating, which was not a good thing and he definitely did not want people knowing. He was handling it fine.

With a start, Sora realized that the school bell could be heard ringing in the distance. That gave him five minutes to get to his locker and then class; that would be impossible without using magic and special abilities. Keep World Order, or get to class on time? He probably should keep World Order. Which class was it, anyway? Oh, right: math. He’d certainly get yelled at in front of the class if he were late. So the new question was: be late and get yelled at, or simply skip class? Skipping class seemed like the more desirable option, future punishments be damned. He’d go back in time for the class after that. 

One of the rabbits had curled up next to Sora, appearing asleep. Next to it was his mostly-uneaten pizza slices, which were surely cold by now. Should he heat them up with a fire spell? No one was around. Sora yawned. He was more tired than hungry, actually. Perhaps he should follow the rabbit’s example and take a quick nap. Sora laid down on the edge of the fountain…

_Hey, wake up, idiot!_

Sora fluttered his eyes slightly, vaguely aware of someone calling him. “Five more minutes,” he mumbled.

_Hey! They’re going to get worried again!_

They? They who? Riku and Kairi? Sora opened his eyes, realizing he was still in the park. He shot up and looked around. Who had been talking to him? Wait, had someone even been talking? Maybe he dreamed it. Sora said hello, seeing if someone answered, but the park seemed to be empty… empty? Oh. He’d only meant to take a very quick nap… what time was it? Sora looked down at his watch. Aww, fudge. So much for only skipping the one class; school ended in five minutes— 

The school bell rang. Scratch that; school ended now. Sora’s watch must be slow comparatively. He took a moment to fix that, and then headed towards the school. Hopefully he’d get there before Kairi and Riku realized he hadn’t been in the building; they generally waited for him outside the gates…

That hope was dashed as he rounded the corner at a run to find the two waiting for him. Belatedly Sora realized that maybe he should have used the school’s back entrance and then claimed he just had to stay after class for a minute. Well, too late for that now.

“Sora!” Kairi gasped, as he skidded to a stop in front of them. “What were you doing over there?” she wondered.

“You weren’t skipping class again, were you?” Riku asked suspiciously.

“It was an accident! Again!” Sora defended. “I fell asleep at lunch, in the park…”

“Fell asleep?” Riku asked, looking concerned. “Did you eat something first? If not we can stop—” 

“Yes, Riku, I ate lunch,” Sora sighed. He didn’t mention how unhealthy said lunch was; Riku kept encouraging Sora to eat healthier, to Sora’s chagrin. Or the fact that he’d barely eaten the equivalent of a half-slice of pizza… aww, crap, he’d forgotten the unopened bag of chips and soda there. “I thought I’d take a quick nap after, but guess I was more tired than I thought, because I only just woke up.”

“Yeah, looks like it,” Riku said, ruffling Sora’s hair, causing Sora to blush slightly; he ducked away, conscious of the students flowing from the building, nervous someone might see and misinterpret the sign of affection for something implying more-than-friends.

“I gotta stop at my locker,” Sora realized. “Be right back!” 

Sora rushed into the school and to his locker, thankfully not running into any teachers on the way. He collected his books quickly, but as he began running back he saw the two boys. Before they could notice him, Sora darted in the opposite direction and around the corner. It was a longer way around to the front, but he’d avoid them. Unfortunately, what he didn’t avoid was his math teacher.

“Oh, so you ARE in school,” the teacher said, crossing his arms. “So you just felt like skipping my class again, did you?”

“What? No, I—” Sora cut himself off. Technically he had intended to skip that class; the others had been the mistake. 

“Unless you have a signed note from a parent, a teacher, a school administrator, a doctor, or the nurse, there is no excuse for missing class. Let’s go, straight to the office with you; you’re getting written up. I believe it’s two lunch detentions for a second offense.”

Sora groaned. He should have just not healed the knee and gone to the nurse instead; he’d have gotten a chance to nap without getting detention for it. Sora followed the teacher to the office, where he promptly grabbed a detention slip to fill out while the secretary, noting this, found Sora’s file to log his offense once the slip was submitted. Sora guiltily noticed that his file was in a smaller bin of files next to the larger cabinet of student records, a bin informally named the ‘delinquent bin’ by the students. The secretary put files there that were more frequently accessed—it wasn’t only for troublemakers, but that’s what the vast majority were. 

Shortly thereafter, Sora was handed his copy of the detention slip, then given permission to leave, which he promptly did, hurrying out as fast as he could without running—he didn’t need yet another detention. 

“Sora! We were getting worried,” Riku said.

“Oooh, is that what I think it is?” Kairi teased.

Sora blushed and hid the detention slip behind his back. “...No?” he tried.

“It’d be two this time, right?” Riku asked. “Careful; next time they’ll be calling your mom.”

Sora sighed, looking at the slip dejectedly. “Yeah. Stupid rabbit,” he muttered.

“Stupid what?”

Sora shook his head. “Nothing. Come on, let’s get home.” He turned and began walking, Riku and Kairi following.


	5. Chapter 5

“Sora, help me with a problem, will you?” Riku asked as he stared at the worksheet for their math class. They were technically in the same one with the same teacher despite Sora being in a different class period due to scheduling. The two of them and Kairi—who was in Riku’s math period—were gathered around a study table in Riku’s room doing their homework.

“You never ask me to help you with homework,” Kairi complained playfully.

Riku raised an eyebrow at her. “So you know how to do it?”

Kairi stared at her copy of the worksheet. “...No. Sora, help me with this, too.”

Sora, who had been reading a chapter of some classic novel for his literature class, pulled Riku’s paper over to him instead of taking out his own. “Ummmm. Actually, I’m not sure how to do this one either,” he admitted.

“...You barely looked at it,” Riku noted.

Sora shrugged. “I mean, I can probably figure it out… but if I’m wrong don’t blame me for points off.”

“Just make something up,” Kairi said casually. “The teacher doesn’t check for correctness on the homework, just that you attempted it.”

“That’s true,” Sora corroborated. “I accidentally did my biology homework on a math worksheet last week, and he still gave me credit.”

Riku looked at Sora curiously. “How did you manage that?” he wondered. He knew Sora could be absentminded, but that was on a new level even for him.

Sora shrugged. “It happens.”

“...Right. Well, anyway, we’re not doing that. We won’t learn unless we do our homework correctly.”

“Booooo, that’s no fun!” Kairi said, sticking her tongue out.

Riku rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah.”

BOOM.

The three jumped; the loud sound nearly shook the house.

“Hikari!” Riku gasped, leaping up, out the door a second later and racing down the stairs, Sora and Kairi in his wake.

The two entered the living room, coughing slightly, to find the TV destroyed again, Hikari’s keyblade through it. Riku’s dad was trying to calm the toddler.

“What happened!?” Riku asked with a gasp.

“I wouldn’t let her have dessert before dinner,” Riku’s dad said wryly. I’m thinking maybe next time we get one of those new plasma TV things; they’re more expensive, but they won’t destroy the room if they’re attacked.”

Riku shook his head in wonder. “Wow. Just… wow,” was all he could say in response.

“Yup. The parenting books sure didn’t talk about this,” Riku’s dad said with a sigh. “I’m truly glad you didn’t start doing magic this young.”

The phone started ringing, and Riku’s dad hurried to answer it. Riku grabbed a broom from the nearby closet and began sweeping shards of glass up as Sora grabbed a trash bag to collect the larger pieces. Kairi moved to help but then Riku’s dad called to her letting her know her mom was on the phone.

“Ah, shoot,” Kairi said. “She probably wants me home; it’s later than I thought… well, I was doing homework so she can’t fault me for that, right?” Despite this she looked worried.

“I’ll back you up,” Riku’s dad said as he entered the room and handed her the phone. She walked back towards the kitchen at the prompting of the phone cord that was stretched far enough that it kept trying to tug the phone away.

Sure enough, Kairi’s parents wanted her home. It looked like it might start to storm, so Kairi’s mom was going to pick her up in a car as Kairi’s home was a fifteen-minute walk away. Island storms could break quickly.

“I better get home, too, then,” Sora said as he tied the bag of trash closed. “I’ll take this out on the way.”

Sora gave Hikari and Riku big full-bodied hugs and Riku’s dad and Kairi both half-hugs, then grabbed the trash and headed out the door.

“I’m a little jealous,” Kairi joked.

“What do you mean?” Riku asked, trying not to blush, knowing very well what she meant. Riku was the only non-baby human Sora willingly gave full hugs to, other than his mom and sometimes Riku's dad.

“...Seriously?” Kairi raised an eyebrow.

The door crashed open again. “Sorry, forgot my backpack!” Sora declared as he darted up the stairs. Or rather, essentially flew up them, instinctively using a burst of air magic to jump the whole way, creating a small wind that blew some papers off a nearby table.

Riku’s dad laughed. “Yeah, definitely good that you three didn’t figure out magic when you were Hikari’s age.”

A few minutes later Kairi’s mom showed up—or rather, pulled up and honked the car’s horn, not bothering to say hello to Riku or his dad. It was no secret that Kairi’s mom was not friendly with Riku’s dad for reasons Riku was not entirely sure about… actually, maybe he did know. The timing of the rift had correlated with his parents’ divorce, and his mom had been good friends with Kairi’s. All three had divisive political views too, specifically on social issues—and even more specifically, those of LGBT+ rights. Riku’s dad was a huge advocate of such, especially once Riku had come out to him—not that anyone else knew that was why Riku’s dad was such a huge advocate (except maybe Sora’s mom, who seemed to just magically know things). He’d even started taking on a lot of cases related to such. Riku’s and Kairi’s moms were the opposite, staunchly advocating against such, and that difference in views had been a major contributor to Riku’s parents’ divorce when he was eight (as well as his mom having an affair with Riku’s now step-father; Riku no longer spoke to either).

“Riku, come help get dinner ready,” Riku’s dad told him tiredly. “Before Hikari has another tantrum.”

“Right,” Riku said, hurrying to the kitchen.

Riku looked at a small whiteboard on the fridge, where there was a list with the week’s meals planned out. Stir-fry. He opened the fridge and removed the necessary vegetables, bringing them to the counter to chop up while his dad prepared a pot of rice before he joined Riku to help cut vegetables.

Riku thought about the day’s events, specifically how Sora had gotten hurt in gym class and then missed the rest of school. It was similar to their second day back, when Sora had gotten hurt in, most likely, the locker room and then skipped school. Both times, he’d fallen asleep, which Sora often did after crying, or at least he had as a kid. Those had been the only times Sora skipped class that Riku knew of, but there had also been the time Sora ‘tripped’ in gym, and the way Sora seemed to rush to and from the locker room as though to circumvent the other students, and how he acted when some of the other students approached him, and the questions he'd asked Riku, and how recently he had definitely been making efforts to hide any signs of affection towards Riku around others… there was no doubt about it: Sora was being bullied, most likely due to his perceived sexuality.

“Hey, dad,” Riku said after a bit, pausing in his stirring of the cooking vegetables. If anyone knew what to do, Riku’s dad would. “What should I do if a friend is being bullied but refuses to admit it or get help?”

Riku’s dad frowned as he prepared food for Hikari. “Well, I’d say tell the school, but I know they’re not good about dealing with that—historically their response has been to ignore it until the problem becomes a lawsuit. How bad is it?”

“I’m not actually sure,” Riku admitted. “I know they hurt him a few times, and made some comments, but I’ve never witnessed much of it myself. It’s conveniently when I’m not around.”

“Conveniently when you’re not around, huh? So, Sora’s the one being bullied?” Riku’s dad intuited.

Riku sighed. “Yeah. Pretty sure it’s homophobically-driven, too, even if he isn’t out as anything. Hell, I don’t even know if he’s even thought about it before. But there’ve been plenty of rumors going around since we returned, and sometimes he asks me what things mean that he heard others say—things like slurs. I think they’re being said to him.”

“Hmmm. Well, bring him by for dinner tomorrow, and I’ll try talking to him,” Riku’s dad decided. “If we can get more information, I can pressure the school into opening an investigation and hopefully get them to do something about it.”

∞♣♥☼♥♣∞

Sora slammed his hand down on his alarm clock. It made a strange noise; had he broken it? Oh, well. Sora curled back into his blanket, intent on falling back to sleep.

_Hey, wake up._

“Don’t wanna,” Sora muttered.

_You have school._

“Not going,” Sora decided, vaguely wondering who exactly the voice was. It wasn’t anyone in his room, he could tell; maybe he was still half-asleep and dreaming it.

_You have detention today for skipping. Skipping both school and that is not a good idea._

“I’ll pretend to be sick,” Sora said. He really was not looking forward to school at all. It only brought pain and suffering… okay, that was an exaggeration, but it still wasn’t pleasant.

_Well, whatever. You’re the one who’ll get in trouble._

Sora contemplated that. It was technically a bad idea to fake sick to skip school. He’d never been very good at that anyway. Still, it was tempting… he just wanted to stay in bed all day. Hmm. Maybe he actually was sick; he seemed to have almost no energy, at least mentally. Sora closed his eyes; maybe five more minutes…

“Sora, wake up,” Someone called urgently, jostling his shoulder. Riku, Sora realized after a second. Made sense, as it was a Thursday so his mom would be at work by now (she taught art three mornings a week at the elementary school, and worked afternoons at the library every weekday, leaving Sora to fend for himself those mornings and after school; she was always telling Sora as he grew up that she’d prefer to be home more, but being a single mom, it was the only way they could afford things. When he was too young to be home alone, he’d go to Riku’s after school. Which he often still did now, but by choice. Not that he’d ever choose otherwise anyway).

“Ngh… don’t wanna…” Sora mumbled.

“Sora, we’re running late for school,” Riku told him.

“Not going.”

Riku sighed. “Yes, you are. Come on, get up.”

“Don’t feel well.” Sora curled further into his blanket again.

“Sora…” Riku pulled the blanket away a little so he could feel Sora’s forehead. “You don’t have a fever. Come on, let’s go.”

Sora grabbed his blanket and hid under it again. He was acting childish, he knew. But. “No. I hate school.”

Riku let out an annoyed grumble. “Okay, it’s boring, yes, but you still have to go.”

“It’s not just boring!” Sora yelled, turning around to look at Riku. “The teachers all hate me and I have no idea what’s going on in half my classes and I keep failing stuff and I have no one I know in my classes except the one with you so even lunch sucks and it’s so annoying having to hold back so much in gym and then—” Fuck, he’d almost revealed the bullying.

“Then?” Riku prodded.

“...then that’s it,” Sora finished lamely.

Riku raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms. “That’s it?”

“That’s it.”

Riku paused for a moment, looking like he was trying to figure out how to phrase something, finally deciding on, “Sora, is someone hurting you?”

Sora froze for a second. “No, why would you say that?” he then said, probably too hurriedly.

“So the black eye and injured knee just came out of nowhere?”

“I told you, I tripped,” Sora lied, looking away. “Both times.”

“You sure?”

“YES. Riku, I’m FINE,” Sora asserted, angrily dislodging from the blankets to stand up and stomp around the room (which had even more heartless-things hanging around than usual, including a few that looked like floating mushrooms) to gather his scattered uniform, aware but uncaring that his reaction probably significantly hinted that no, he wasn’t fine.

“Sora—”

“Riku, drop it,” Sora said firmly, hurriedly undressing and redressing—vaguely noting Riku turning away with a blush as he did so—before grabbing his backpack, ready to head out the door. He really should brush his teeth and comb his hair and whatnot too, but the voice had been right, he didn’t want more detention. If they ran, they could probably make it.

“Hey, don’t forget your tie,” Riku reminded Sora, grabbing it from the back of a chair.

Sora crossed his arms. “Who cares about a stupid tie,” he mumbled.

“The school does. You can get in trouble for it,” Riku explained calmly. “Unless you’re going for a record of ‘most infractions in a single week’, I’d suggest wearing it.” He tossed the tie around Sora’s neck and began tying it for him. Sora blushed, but lowered his arms and allowed Riku to do so.

When Riku finished, he ran his hands through Sora’s hair to tame the bedhead, brushing Sora’s cheek slightly when he finished. “Ready to go?” Riku asked, meeting Sora’s eyes. Sora’s heart skipped a beat. What was this feeling?

“Um. Yeah, let’s go,” Sora said, quickly turning around and leaving his room.

Riku followed Sora down the stairs, but told him to wait a minute before Sora headed out the door. This confused Sora, until Riku emerged from the kitchen with a banana and ordered him to eat it on the way. Sora blushed a bit at the coddling, but accepted it. He also didn’t argue at all when Riku grabbed his hand, as usual, although he kept vigilant for anyone around that might see.

Sora let go of Riku’s hand as soon as Kairi joined them, although he knew he probably didn’t have to, especially if his mom was right about her and Selphie, which considering how Selphie had just greeted only Kairi with the most bubbly hug ever, causing Kairi to turn bright red, seemed likely.

As the four of them plus Wakka and Tidus proceeded on their walk to school, Sora noticed a few of the spindly heartless (they probably had a different name as, although this didn’t have one, the symbols on the other things he saw were different. However, he didn’t know the word, and this was a shadowy thing, so heartless would have to do) following them. “What are those?” Sora mused to himself, trying to figure out if he remembered hearing anything about things that looked like heartless.

“What is what?” Kairi asked, and Sora realized he’d said that aloud.

Sora shrugged. “Thought I saw something, but I guess not,” he said. “You know how it is.”

Riku nodded. “Yeah. Every unexpected sign of movement makes me want to pull my keyblade out,” he admitted.

Sora nodded, although truthfully he didn’t feel the same way anymore. He’d been seeing so many things around that others didn’t that he just assumed now that they weren’t real. That wouldn’t bode well if something actually did appear, but generally he was with someone, so presumably they’d react which would confirm when something was real. Also, truthfully… the spindly things seemed somewhat comforting, like they were actually trying to protect him. From what Sora didn’t know, but he felt no malice from any of them. He’d kinda grown to like them, actually.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for this chapter in advance.

That afternoon found Sora leaving the school alone. Kairi had tennis practice, and Riku had to stay late to do a make-up test—he got lucky and had a teacher who let them redo tests if they wanted to try for a better grade. So, Sora was on his own walking home.

Sora left the school slightly later than usual, as he’d accidentally dropped his backpack while transferring books between it and his locker, spilling everything all over. So by the time he left, almost everyone had left who wasn’t staying for extracurriculars. As Sora exited the building, he noticed the gang from gym class just a short distance from the door. He debated going back inside to use another exit, but there were a few other students there, so instead Sora tried to slip around them before they noticed him. Unfortunately, this proved fruitless.

“Hey look, the little fairy!” One of the girls, who had long black hair in a ponytail, screeched in a shrill voice. 

As the rest of the group turned to look, Sora realized with a jolt that they were actually one big group rather than the gang and some stragglers as he'd assumed. Apparently the gang actually included seven people, not just the two boys and girls from gym class—the extra three must be from other grades. Sora didn't recognize them. In addition to usual blonde and brown haired boys, the black-haired ponytailed girl, and the blonde with a pixie cut, there was a girl with glasses and long pink hair, a boy of more average build with head completely shaved, and a boy with short blonde dreadlocks who was the largest of them all, more than twice Sora’s size.

As Sora turned to run back into the building, well aware that no one else was around, the boy with the dreadlocks grabbed him by his collar, causing Sora to drop his backpack, and pulled him towards the group, laughing. “And where do you think you’re going? We’ve heard so much about you; it isn’t fair only those four get to have all the fun, don’t you think?” He dragged Sora a bit away from the school and then threw Sora to the ground hard. The group circled around him, sneering, reminiscent of a pack of hyenas—and Sora was their prey. 

“Please let me go, I’m not going to bother you,” Sora said meekly, though he realized it was no use. The only way he could get out of here would be to use magic, which he’d been told not to use in view of those who didn’t know about it. But maybe it’d be justified to escape this…? No, they were just humans. Horrible as they were, he didn’t want to hurt them, even if they were going to hurt him, which he was certain they were.

“Stand up, faggot,” the blonde-haired boy from gym class commanded as he kicked Sora in the side. 

Sora moved to get up, shaking slightly in fear, but before he could on his own the ponytailed girl grabbed his wrist and pulled him up roughly to standing, his feet barely finding purchase on the ground; Sora hadn’t realized how tall she was until then. Strong, too; she clutched his wrist above his head so hard it hurt. 

“Hold him there,” the dreadlocked boy told the girl.

Sora tried to struggle out of her grip, but she twisted his arm around sharpy; Sora cried out in pain. She grabbed his other wrist to hold his arms behind him.

“Stop it!” Sora yelled, struggling. Some of the heartless-like things, of varying types, were again trying to attack the assailants, to no effect. 

“Ugh, the ponce is stronger than he looks,” the girl complained. “A little help here?”

The girl with pink hair immediately stepped over, taking one of Sora’s arms so they each held one in such a way that Sora couldn’t move.

Sora cried out as he received a punch to the gut from the bald boy. “Why are you doing this?!” Sora asked frantically. “What did I ever do to you?”

“Existed,” said the bald boy, and spat in Sora’s face. “Sissies like you are a stain on this earth.”

The group took turns punching and kicking Sora in various places, laughing and joking the whole time. Sora tried to use magic, World-Order be damned, but the way he was held provided no way to do so, not to mention he needed solid focus for that which he currently definitely did not have. He tried summoning the keyblade, but he was so panicked that it didn’t form. Sora tried to call out for help, but one of the kids grabbed his tie and tightened it until Sora could barely breathe, let alone yell.

Finally, the girls let go, and Sora fell to the ground shaking. He clutched at his throat, managing to loosen the tie before he was kicked in the ribs again. The heartless-like creatures—more than Sora had ever seen at once—were running around in a clear panic, unsure what to do to protect Sora when they were intangible and invisible.

Suddenly, Sora was in the air; the huge dreadlocked boy had lifted Sora up by the waist easily. “Time to take out the trash,” he sneered, and Sora realized he was moving towards the nearby dumpster. 

“No, stop!” Sora yelled, kicking his legs, but then the boy with a buzzcut grabbed his legs at the dreadlocked kid’s command. “Please, stop,” Sora begged. “Please…”

“Wait,” the bald boy ordered, and the two stopped. He sneered. “A souvenir,” he said. Sora screamed as the boy ripped the small fencer’s earring from his ear, tearing the lobe.

The two boys then heaved Sora into the half-full dumpster, laughing along with the entire group, who then left.

Sora waited a good ten minutes before crawling out of the dumpster, just to make sure they were actually gone. Yup, that was definitely the reason he waited. Sora definitely had not been crying, followed by him having no motivation to move until one of the heartless-like creatures—this one slightly different than the others, a spindly one with crimson highlights instead of blue and gold eye-marks instead of red—appeared on the dumpster’s ledge and began frantically waving its spindly arms in a panic until Sora reluctantly decided to get out… Okay, maybe he had done that. Could one blame him?

As Sora limped over to his backpack, the door to the school opened, and out walked Riku. Sora looked at him with wide eyes. No, no, no! He didn’t want Riku to see him like this! 

Riku’s eyes widened to match Sora’s as he took in his appearance, and then dashed towards him. “Sora!” he called, stopping in front of him with a panicked expression. He lifted his hands up, but froze, seeming unsure how to approach the situation. “Wh-What happened?!”

Sora felt his eyes well up with tears and his lip trembled. He lunged forwards and wrapped his arms around Riku’s waist, sobbing into his chest and shaking like a leaf. Riku wrapped his own arms around Sora and stood there, letting Sora cry as much as he needed, gently rubbing Sora’s back in a comforting gesture.

“Who did it?” Riku asked firmly once Sora had stopped crying and loosened his grip on Riku slightly; he’d probably been constricting the silverette’s breathing with how hard he’d been squeezing. He didn’t want to let go fully though, and Riku made no move to move either.

“What do you mean?” Sora asked, looking up at Riku.

“Sora, you’re covered in blood and bruises and clearly were in a dumpster,” Riku pointed out levelly, peeling a banana peel from Sora’s hair and tossing it to the ground. He put a hand on Sora’s head and started to whisper what sounded like a cure spell, but then stopped. “You have to report this to the school,” Riku said quietly, stroking a hand through Sora’s hair while the other rested on his back. “Come on, let’s go to the nurse’s office.” Sora briefly wondered why he’d suggest the nurse when they had cure magic, then remembered that if Riku wanted him to report it, they’d need evidence. Besides, returning the next day unharmed would make the gang suspicious.

Sora buried his face in Riku’s chest again. “But I don’t even know their names,” he admitted.

“That doesn’t matter. You can’t just let them bully you.”

“It wouldn’t be an issue if I could actually fight back,” Sora countered, trying to sound stronger than he felt. “But without magic and the keyblade it’s impossible… there were seven of them, Riku, and half of them were twice my size! Even when I tried to do something I couldn’t do anything. It was terrifying!” Sora began to sob again.

“What did they do?” Riku asked in a whisper, as though he were afraid to find out.

Sora explained between sobs. “T-Two of the g-girls held m-me down while the g-guys all t-took turns h-hitting me, and they were all y-yelling awful things and l-laughing… I th-thought about using m-magic, even though w-we aren’t s-supposed to, b-but they had me held d-down and t-tightened my tie so much I c-couldn’t speak, so even if I w-were allowed to I w-wouldn’t have b-been able to… it was so horrible, Riku!” He began crying in earnest again.

Riku moved his hand from Sora’s hair to join the other at his back and held Sora tightly, burying his face in Sora’s hair. “Shhh, I’m here, Sora, it’s okay, you’re okay now, I’ve got you,” he murmured, rubbing Sora’s back.

When Sora stopped crying again, Riku pulled back and grabbed his hand to lead him to the school. Sora looked around nervously and started to pull back—what if those kids were still around?—but Riku held tighter instead. After a few steps, Sora winced and stumbled with a gasp.

“S-sorry,” Sora panted, standing straighter as Riku grabbed his arm to hold him steady and gave him a concerned look. “It just hurts,” he admitted. “And I feel slightly dizzy, too,” he realized.

Riku directed Sora to drape an arm around his shoulders to stay steady while they walked, similar to how Sora had guided Riku in the Realm of Darkness, picking up Sora’s tie and backpack on the way. When Sora stumbled again, Riku shoved the tie in his pocket and slung the backpack over his bag, then swept Sora up to carry him fully in his arms. Sora blushed, but didn’t complain; embarrassing or not, it was better than walking. Ugh. If only they could use cure magic!

Sora suddenly felt immensely tired, moreso mentally than physically, and realized he was breathing shallowly as too deep breaths caused his bruised (broken?) ribs to hurt. Everything was painful.

“Sora?” Riku asked worriedly, as he knocked on the door to the nurse’s office with his foot.

“Oh my goodness!” Said the nurse upon opening the door. She reminded Sora a bit of Aerith in looks but with flatter hair and a much more falsely-chipper personality. “Well, come in, put him on the bed there,” she said, and Riku complied. “What happened?” she asked.

Riku explained things while the nurse made sure Sora wasn’t going to pass out or anything; she then scurried over to the phone and called the principal down before going to grab some bandages to tend to Sora’s torn, still-bleeding earlobe. By the time the wound had been dressed and the nurse started working on some of the smaller cuts and scrapes, the principal arrived.

Once he had been brought up to speed too, the principal—a tall blue-haired man whose face always looked sterner than he generally acted, although right now seemed quite serious—asked Sora exactly what the boys had said to Sora upon noting him holding Riku’s hand.

Sora’s memories of the events had started growing hazy, but he did remember the bald boy’s words about him being a stain as well as the slurs that had been used. He quietly told the principal this.

“This was a hate crime,” the principal declared. He turned to the nurse. “I’m going to call the police. Don’t work on any more non-urgent wounds until they get here; they’ll want to take photographs as evidence. I’ll also retrieve the security footage, maybe the camera caught it.” He turned to Sora. “You say you don’t know their names, right? Do you know what year they’re in? Are any in your classes?”

“Four are in my gym class,” Sora replied, voice rough from the earlier crying. “The other three were older.” Sora’s gaze had drifted from the principal to the end of the bed, where a couple rabbit-heartless-things were sitting.

“Okay. Would you be able to recognize their pictures?” the principal asked, and Sora nodded. “Okay, good. I’ll be back shortly.” The principal exited the room.

After that, things seemed to happen in a whirlwind. The cops showed up quickly—there weren’t that many major crimes on the island, after all—and Sora’s mom followed shortly after, practically tackling Sora in a tearful hug, then apologizing profusely when he cried out in pain from the bruises and injured rib. They identified the bullies, via both photos in school records and the school’s cameras, which had caught the entire thing (minus the heartless-like creatures) as it had occurred so close to the entrance. 

Sora did his best not to cry while explaining—they wanted to know everything, including any prior incidents with the bullies, such as the black eye and being tripped—but that didn’t work very well at all, and soon he found himself cuddled in Riku’s arms while he spoke between sobs.

As the crying eased, Sora became aware that a few more of the heartless-like creatures had manifested in the room, simply watching him. They were in full view, three of the spindly things and two more of the rabbit-like ones in addition to those on the bed. The new crimson spindly one was there too, and Sora realized that it was larger than the other spindly ones… strange. Why would that one be different? Was it more powerful? Pondering this pulled Sora’s focus slightly away from the conversation and caused him to pause while staring at them, until Riku gave him a nudge. 

Everyone was much kinder than expected, very patient with Sora even though he kept losing concentration and periodically broke into tears. Sora wondered if he just was lucky to have gotten officers that weren’t judgemental or if the local police force had people trained specifically for such situations. The entire time Riku had his arm around Sora’s shoulders while Sora leaned into him, and he held Sora’s hand with his other one.

  
  
  


∞♣♥☼♥♣∞

“Okay, let’s get you properly healed now,” Riku told Sora as they entered his house.

“Wait but what about World Order?” Sora asked. “People will get suspicious if I go to school completely fine…”

“Okay, firstly, you are not going to school tomorrow.”

“I’m not?”

Sora’s mom answered that. “No, you’re not. You’ve just been through a major trauma; you need at least a few days to recuperate,” she said adamantly. “The principal suggested it, but even if he hadn’t I would have insisted. Especially as it’ll probably end up in the papers; you don’t need the whole school pestering you while you’re still processing things!”

“The papers?” Sora said, voice high. That was… that was… 

His mom nodded. “Unfortunately, yes. These types of crimes usually do end up in it, especially in a town with barely two thousand people.”

“Oh.” Sora looked down, thoughts starting to race. “So everyone’s going to know,” he concluded. “And since it’s a hate crime, because of what they said, everyone will think that I’m… you know… but I don’t even know what I am myself…” Sora felt some tears starting to escape.

Riku pulled Sora into a hug. “Hey, it’ll be okay,” he said. “You’ll get through this. You’ve been through worse.”

“Have I?” Sora asked quietly. Objectively, yeah, he’d been through worse. This time the universe wasn’t in danger, nor was he having to fight a friend or stab himself with a keyblade, nor was he in a pod with scrambled memories. But... “It doesn’t feel like it. Not right now.”

Riku nodded. “I know.” He stepped back, then put a hand on Sora’s head. “Cur—”

“Wait,” Sora said, grabbing Riku’s wrist before he could finish the spell. “Leave the one on my face and other places people can see.”

Riku scrunched his eyebrows. “I’m not sure if I can do concentrated cure magic like that. Can you?”

Sora shook his head. “No, Donald did most of the healing. I’m mediocre at healing at best; thought you might be better at it, as you travelled alone for a while… I mean, theoretically it’d be similar to doing a spell that covers one person versus multiple people, right?”

Riku bit his lip in thought. “I guess that makes sense. Okay, I can try.” He moved his hand to rest on Sora’s side. Let’s start with your rib. Curaga.” The translucent glowing green vines of the spell and some warmth encircled Sora’s torso, then crawled up to his neck and down to his pelvis. The rib itself stung for a moment before being healed; yup, that had been cracked. Riku had an intense look of concentration as the vines began spreading further, but then the vines retracted slightly just after crawling across Sora’s shoulders and down his upper thighs before vanishing completely.

“You did it!” Sora cheered, sighing in relief as he cataloged his remaining injuries. His cheek was still puffy, and his arms and legs still had some large bruises, but the pain from those was minor compared to the previous level of pain from the severely bruised and broken ribs.

“I’m going to heal your head and face, too,” Riku decided. “The bruises on the arms and legs will be enough.”

Sora frowned. “You sure?”

Riku nodded. “Just want to be sure there’s not a concussion, and I don’t think I can be specific enough to get that but not the bruise.” He put his hand on Sora’s head and said “Curaga”. Sora closed his eyes as Riku’s magic encircled his head. Afterwards, Sora reached up to feel his cheek; no bruise evident at all. He felt less dizzy, too; maybe there had actually been a concussion forming.

“That’s amazing,” Sora’s mom gasped. “It’s too bad those healing skills can’t be shared.”

Riku nodded. “Yeah. We have to keep ‘World Order’ though,” he said, sounding slightly bitter about it. Riku looked down at Sora. “You need to get cleaned up and changed,” he said.

Sora’s mom nodded. “Yes. I’ll cook dinner; Riku, you should change and shower, too.” 

Riku looked down at himself; his clothes were quite dirty from carrying and hugging Sora so much, and Sora felt slightly guilty over that.

“I don’t have any clothes here,” Riku pointed out.

“Yes you do,” Sora’s mom answered. “You left your pajama bottoms here last time you stayed over, and Sora came home wearing your shirt last time he stayed over your place.”

“Mom!” Sora said, voice coming out as a squeak of all things as he covered his face to hide the growing blush as Riku raised his eyebrow at Sora with an amused smile. Sora wondered what Riku would think if he realized Sora had not worn his shirt accidentally. Or did he realize that already? The look he’d given Sora was suspect. Sora hoped Riku liked the idea of Sora wearing his shirt… 

Okay, maybe Sora did know what he was after all, despite what he’d said a couple minutes prior. He had said that he hadn’t thought about it much, but in truth he had thought about it quite a bit the past week. Sora had just been embarrassed to fully admit it in retrospect, even to himself; after all, if that was how people treated gay people, Sora did not want to be gay! It wasn’t exactly a choice, though. Whether he wanted to be or not, Sora was certain now that he definitely was gay—and in love with Riku.

Now came the question of if Riku felt the same way. If those fond looks Riku gave him and all the blushing wasn’t indicative of, at the very least, a crush, Sora didn’t know what would be. Plus, there was the hand-holding, too, and all the hugs, and how Riku had held him the entire time Sora was explaining things earlier… Hmm. Perhaps a larger test was in order, something to cement Sora’s suspicions about Riku’s feelings.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here, have something fluffy to recover from the previous chapter.

Riku subconsciously swiveled the rotating office chair in Sora’s bedroom from side to side while he stared at the wall, lost in thought. Normally he’d crash on the bed, but he didn’t want to get it dirty—Riku, naturally, had insisted Sora shower first. Riku desperately tried to get his mind to drift away from that image; he was almost completely certain Sora was attracted to him in the same manner, but it still made Riku feel embarrassed to actually think about Sora in that way. Plus, there was always that little seed of doubt… Sora had always been affectionate with Riku, so what if Riku was deluding himself? Riku shook the thought away. No, he definitely wasn’t imagining things; there was too much evidence. Why else would Sora insist on holding Riku’s hand so much, but only when no one else was around? Sora clearly knew what it signaled to others, yet still took the risk of being caught because he liked holding Riku’s hand so much. Plus, all the blushes, and fond looks Sora only gave Riku, and the frequent hugs—Sora had always been friendly, but physical touch had always been something Sora shied away from (at least with kids their own age), with the exception of Riku… 

Riku sighed. Now would probably not be the time to confess though, with what had just happened earlier that day... Well, the silver lining was that the bullies would stop, Riku supposed bitterly, as they’d hopefully be expelled and/or jailed. Riku had been hoping they could stop it before it got to this point; he should have spoken to his dad about it sooner. How could someone do this to Sora? To anyone? Just because of whom they loved? Or, were assumed to love—the bullies hadn’t even known for sure. Such hate for something that didn’t even affect them, didn’t cause harm to anyone. 

The door creaked open, and Sora entered the room… wearing nothing but a fluffy white towel, hair still wet from the shower. Fuck. Don’t look too much… don’t react, don’t react… Riku stood up, preparing to leave the room, a blush slowly beginning to form.

“Hey, Riku,” Sora said happily, walking over to him… and giving him a hug. In nothing but a towel.

Riku’s brain nearly short-circuited, his heart fluttered with excitement, and his cock twitched. Fuck, he had to get out of here… “Um, I still need to shower,” Riku said, dodging away. “I don’t want to get you dirty right after you got clean,” he added in explanation for why he didn’t return the hug. Yeah, that was definitely the reason, not the onset of a boner… Riku’s face felt like it was on fire as he rushed out the door and to the bathroom, grabbing his pile of clean clothes on the way, vaguely noting that Sora had a sly grin on his face, as though he’d won something, mixed with a blush.

Riku closed the door behind him and leaned against it, taking deep breaths to calm himself down. Well, that just happened. Okay. Riku weighed the chances of Sora doing that intentionally versus being entirely unaware… Riku then recalled the expression Sora had when Riku had left the room all flustered. Yeah, that definitely had been intentional. What next? Would he return to find Sora wearing his shirt or something? Riku looked down, double-checking the clothes pile he’d grabbed, noting he only had pajama bottoms with him; his shirt, which he was sure had been there, was conspicuously absent.

If Riku left the shower to find Sora wearing his shirt, that’d be Riku’s undoing. He’d just have to make a move… which he might just do regardless after that towel thing. Sora had definitely been testing Riku’s reaction, by that smug look he had on. Well, two could play at that game… 

  
  
  


∞♣♥☼♥♣∞

Sora collapsed on his bed once showered and dressed, spread-eagle and staring at the ceiling, trying to avoid thinking about the day’s prior events. Instead, he thought about Riku. How Riku had comforted him, been there for him through the whole thing. Sora was lucky Riku had left the school when he did; Sora didn’t know what he’d have done otherwise. Heal himself and go home? Pretend it didn’t happen? Go back to school the next day, only for them to beat him up again? Sora shook his head. No, he was trying not to think about that! 

Sora focused on thinking about Riku, and that reaction to seeing Sora in a towel. Sora blushed thinking of that. Sora was now near-positive that the affection was mutual… but, then again, Sora had never been that good at noticing things, so maybe not. Sora shook the thought away. No, there was more than enough evidence. There was no denying how physically affectionate Riku was towards Sora, more so than anyone but his baby sister. Not that it was sibling love! No, definitely not that. Sora imagined that, of everyone, Kairi would be the closest to a sibling to him. Riku was definitely something more than that to Sora, and Sora was surely something more than that to Riku. There was no doubt about it. The towel reaction had been plenty of proof; combine that with the hand-holding, blushing, fond looks, and everything else, and there was zero chance of Sora misinterpreting things. Yup, Riku definitely liked Sora in a more-than-friends way.

Sora yawned. Just as he was considering taking a nap, Riku walked into the room, and Sora turned his head to find Riku in pajama bottoms and shirtless. Sora couldn’t help but grin.

“Sora, do you know where that shirt—seriously?” Riku looked at Sora with fond amusement upon noting that Sora was wearing an oversized black Pink Floyd t-shirt, featuring the prism from the cover of the ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ album.

“What?” Sora asked, the cheesy smile widening.

“You know what,” Riku said with a smug grin, sitting on the edge of the bed. “I’ve been wondering where that shirt went.”

“It’s mine now,” Sora declared, eyes roaming over Riku’s chest, very aware of how close it was. He could reach out and touch it…

Riku noticed this and smiled in amusement, leaning forwards slightly. “So, you said earlier that you don’t know what you are, huh?”

Sora gulped as his heart sped up. “Uhhh. No, I think I figured it out,” he said, looking Riku in the eyes and blushing. Sora’s heart raced. He hoped he was reading the room correctly. He glanced down at Riku’s lips. “Correction: I’ve definitely figured it out…”

“Yeah? And what’s your conclusion?” Riku asked coyly.

“I’m, er. Definitely gay. Very very gay.”

“Hmm,” Riku hummed, eyes sparkling mischievously. “And is there any subject to that desire?”

Sora nodded his head slowly, eyes trailing over Riku’s chest again before returning to his eyes. “Yeah,” he breathed, heart pounding and highly conscious of how close Riku had leaned in. Not even a foot away... “Yeah, there is.”

Riku gently put a hand on Sora’s cheek, and Sora couldn’t resist anymore. He grabbed Riku’s shoulders and pulled him down, mashing their lips together. Riku responded eagerly, cupping Sora’s cheeks with his hands as Sora wrapped his arms around Riku’s neck. It was sloppy, as neither boy knew exactly what they were doing, and their teeth definitely clacked, but they didn’t withdraw until they were out of breath.

“I love you,” Sora breathed, only realizing after that maybe it was too soon to say that.

Riku breathed in sharply, a smile blossoming on his face, brighter than Sora had seen since they’d returned. “I love you too,” he replied. Okay, good, it wasn’t too soon.

“Kiss me again?” Sora asked, feeling like he could float away.

Riku did, but chastely and brief this time before sitting up, ruffling Sora’s hair as he did so. “As much as I’d love to keep kissing you, we probably should get properly changed and head to dinner.”

Sora sighed. “Yeah, probably,” he agreed, sitting up too, then realized something. “Ugh, if my mom finds out about this, does that mean she’ll make us stop having sleepovers?”

Riku chuckled at that as he helped Sora pull his shirt off so Riku could put it on. “From some of her comments and looks, I’m pretty sure your mom has known you were gay for a while, and already assumes we’re together.”

“What?” Sora said, floored by that. Or, maybe he wasn’t. His mom had assumed he meant he was gay when he asked about it, after all.

Riku nodded. “Mhmm. Your feelings weren’t exactly well-hidden.”

“Then why didn’t you say anything sooner?!” Sora protested.

Riku shrugged. “You needed to figure it out for yourself,” he said simply. His eyes got that mischievous glint again. “Plus, it was kinda cute.”

“Hey!” Sora playfully shoved him, and Riku laughed.

“Okay, let’s get moving,” Riku said as he stood up. “You get a shirt on, and I’ll put our clothes in the laundry.”

“And when the laundry is done, I can have your shirt back?” Sora asked hopefully.

Riku ruffled Sora’s hair again and chuckled. “Sure, you can have my shirt.”

Shortly after, the two boys and Sora’s mom gathered at the dinner table, bowls practically overflowing with spaghetti topped with homemade meat-and-vegetable sauce. Sora’s mother had been making it that way since Sora was a little kid and refused to eat vegetables, discovering that if it was mixed in with the sauce Sora either wouldn’t notice or wouldn’t care—Sora couldn’t remember which it was. It was the same way with most things she made, something lingering from years past, habitual now rather than a conscious decision. But it tasted good, and that’s what mattered.

Sora dug right in, not realizing how hungry he had been. He ignored the larger spindly shadow thing from earlier, which was sitting on the table and clearly not seen by Riku or Sora’s mom.

“Riku,” Sora’s mom said, “I called your dad. He’s going to be the prosecutor on the case."

Riku nodded. “Makes sense.” Riku’s dad always helped them out with legal matters, although in the past it’d been for smaller things, like when the neighbor accidentally launched a firework into their fence and refused to pay for damages. Of course, those cases always were at the municipal level, heard only by a judge, whereas this case would probably get sent to the larger court the next island over (if it did go to court; it was on video, so fighting it’d be stupid), as it’d require an actual jury. That island was much bigger, housing around ten thousand people instead of just under two thousand like their island. It had multiple hotels, a huge indoor mall, a water park, a much larger boardwalk, and even a fairly famous concert venue (named the “Rock Mule”; who knew where that name came from), as well as all the Destiny Islands’s governmental buildings.

“Your dad’s okay with that?” Sora asked through a mouthful of pasta.

Riku looked at Sora, confused. “Why wouldn’t he be?”

Sora shrugged. “You said it yourself: a lot of people don’t like gay people.”

Riku rolled his eyes. “Sora, my dad knew I was gay before I did, or so he claims.”

“Oh.” Sora paused, realizing he needed to tell his mom something. “Hey, mom, you know how I said earlier I didn’t know what I was? Well, I figured it out like a half hour ago: I’m gay. And in love with Riku.” Sora noticed that Riku’s face had grown bright red at that.

Sora’s mom laughed. “Sora, I’ve known that since you were five and declared you two would get married.”

“I did WHAT?” Sora said, scandalized. He turned to Riku. “Did you know about this?”

Riku looked away, face red and biting his lip slightly. “...Maybe,” he said, clearly trying to not laugh.

“Riku was all for it too!” Sora’s mom cheerfully pitched in unhelpfully.

Sora pushed his half-eaten bowl away and flopped his head onto the table. “Can someone die of embarrassment?”

Riku patted Sora on the shoulder as he continued to stifle laughter. Sora turned his head to look up at him, unamused.

“Sora, finish your spaghetti,” his mom reminded him, and Sora sat up and dragged the bowl towards himself. As he took a bite, he realized something else and asked, “Wait, if you—”

“Sora, don’t talk with your mouth full,” Riku reminded him.

Sora swallowed, the bite so large he started coughing, and Riku patted him on the back to help while Sora took a huge gulp of water. Sora caught his breath, then asked his question. “So if you all knew, does that mean other people did? How many? Does Kairi know? Wait, if she doesn’t know, will she be okay with it?” Kairi definitely had a crush on him before the islands fell. Probably not now though, but still.

Sora’s mom looked confused. “Of course she’d be fine with it. Isn’t she dating, oh, what’s her name, Selphie?”

Riku and Sora looked at Sora’s mom in shock and simultaneously said “WHAT?!”

Sora continued, “Why do you know more gossip about our friends than we do?” And why wouldn’t Kairi say anything?

Sora’s mom looked embarrassed. “Oh, I didn’t know it was a secret. I suppose it could be platonic, but over the past year I saw them taking some beach walks hand-in-hand, found them in the corner of the library curled up together reading the same book, and spotted them alone together at some popular date spots… oh, but neither of her parents are exactly… well, let’s just say I guess it makes sense why they’d want to hide it.”

“It hurts that she’d hide it from us though,” Sora admitted.

“Well, you two have been hiding your relationship from her, right?” Sora’s mom pointed out. Sora didn’t correct her on the fact they hadn’t actually discussed their relationship status. It was basically true: they’d been hiding the hand-holding and stuff from Kairi, at the very least. They were both afraid she’d be judgmental, even though she was their closest friend besides each other.

Sora suddenly realized something else. “Wait a second. Backing up to you knowing we liked each other forever—why did you allow… um.” He wasn’t sure how to word that. Maybe he shouldn’t say. But he knew it wasn’t typical for parents who knew their kid was with someone to allow sleepovers. “Nevermind,” he decided. He didn’t want to bring it to her attention in case she hadn’t thought about that before.

Sora’s mom chuckled, realizing what Sora had been about to ask. “Sora, I had you when I was seventeen, and my parents were so conservative that I got kicked out of my house for it. I’m not going to subject you to their strict rules too. Just be safe.”

Sora was sure his face had lit up like Rudolph’s nose. “Mom! We, um, we haven’t… Mom!” He glanced at Riku, whose face was a matching shade of red as he buried his face in his hands. Also, that information about his birth was new; somehow, it’d never struck him just how young his mom was compared to the parents of his friends. Suddenly the fact that his mom never talked about his dad or her family made a lot of sense, too.

Sora steered the subject away. “Um, Riku, if your dad knows, does that mean your mom and step dad know too? About you being gay.”

Riku took a few deep breaths to calm the blush, then scoffed. “Sora, I haven’t seen my mom or step dad since I was ten,” he pointed out. “I don’t think they even know I was missing for two years.”

“Right,” Sora said. “Sorry. Shouldn’t have brought that up.”

Riku shrugged. “It is what it is. I got over it a long time ago.”

“Yeah… hey, we should probably talk to Kairi about everything,” Sora realized. "So she doesn't hear it first via the rumor mill," he reasoned.

“Honey, it’s late,” Sora’s mom pointed out. “And her parents are very strict about calling after eight; you can call her in the morning.” Sora looked at the clock; it was nearly nine-thirty. Talking with everyone earlier had taken many hours.

Riku too was looking at the clock. “I guess I should head home then…” he said, sounding very reluctant.

“I already told your dad you’d be staying over,” Sora’s mom informed him. 

Riku looked surprised. “He was okay with that? It’s a school night.”

Sora’s mom gave Riku a look of amusement. “Riku, if you go home, you’re going to be up all night worrying about Sora and end up calling at 3am or something to check on him.”

Riku blushed and Sora snickered. Immediately after learning how to use a telephone, Riku had developed a habit of doing that whenever Sora was feeling bad. It was kinda cute, Sora thought. “Fair point,” Riku conceded.

After dinner, due to the late hour, Sora and Riku immediately brushed their teeth—Riku had a permanent toothbrush there—and then headed to Sora’s room. Given the opportunity, Sora would stay up well past midnight and sleep until noon, but school started at the ungodly hour of 7am so the general house rule was a 10pm bedtime (even though Sora’s mom never scolded him for breaking that rule). Riku changed into a pajama shirt—he was already wearing the matching pajama pants—and Sora grabbed the discarded Pink Floyd shirt to wear instead. He removed his shorts and flopped down on the bed in his boxers, ignoring the larger spindly whatever-it-was at the end of the bed. The shirt rode up a bit when he fell as it was so loose, but Sora didn’t bother to fix it.

Riku breathed in sharply and stared at Sora. “Y-you’re not going to put pants on?”

Sora grinned slyly at Riku. “Why, is there a problem?”

Riku’s face reddened. “Um, no, but, well… what about your mom? She’ll—”

“You heard what she said earlier, Riku,” Sora reminded the silverette with a wink.

Riku closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “I don’t think I’m ready for—”

Sora giggled. “I know, I know. I’m kidding. I’ll put pants on if you want.” He started to sit up.

“No, that’s okay,” Riku said quickly, sitting on the bed. He leaned down and pecked Sora on the lips, brushing a hand through Sora’s hair. Then he stood back up and went to set the alarm and turn off the lights, making sure the night-light was on first—neither of them could sleep in complete darkness anymore.

Sora readjusted to scooch under the covers instead of lying on top, and Riku soon joined him. Sora cuddled up to Riku, wrapped his hands around his waist, and flung a leg over him, their typical sleeping position—they’d been doing that during sleepovers since they were little kids, and that never changed even as they got older. It only just occurred to Sora that it was actually a very intimate position; he wondered if Riku had ever given any thought to such. Probably not, as it never caused blushes or anything. Riku snuggled up close and put his arms around Sora as well, tucking Sora’s head under his chin and placing a kiss against his hair. That part of sleeping together was new, and did cause a blush from them both. Sora leaned his head upwards and returned the favor on the lips, which Riku responded to eagerly.

When the kiss broke Sora nuzzled into Riku’s chest again. “I want to kiss you all night but I’m also really sleepy,” he admitted.

Riku chuckled. “Yeah, same. Plus, school.” He kissed Sora on the head again, and Sora made a content little murmur in response.

Sora yawned and closed his eyes as Riku gently stroked his side, fully relaxed despite the day’s events thanks to Riku’s presence. It only took a few minutes for Sora to fall asleep, content in Riku’s arms.


	8. Chapter 8

Sora woke with a big yawn, blinking his eyes open to sunlight streaming through the window. From the angle it must be around 9am, Sora figured. He had rolled over during the night, and Riku was wrapped around him from behind, spooning him.

Wait. Today wasn’t a weekend, was it? No, it was Friday. There was school. Had the alarm not rung? Why wouldn’t Sora’s mom wake them up? Then, Sora remembered the previous day… right, he was staying home. But wasn’t Riku going to school?

“Riku, wake up,” Sora said urgently.

Riku groaned in response.

“Riku,” Sora said again. “Don’t you have school?”

Riku shifted, and Sora could sense the moment it sunk in. “Fuck!” Riku said, sitting up suddenly. 

Sora sat up, too, and looked towards the alarm clock—or rather, where it should be. It was missing; instead of it laid a note in his mother’s handwriting. Sora picked it up, and started laughing once he’d read it. “Riku, look,” he said, handing the note to him.

_Riku, I decided that you’re not going to school either—don’t worry, both the school and your dad know. I have to go to work, but don’t want to leave Sora alone. There are waffles and other breakfast things in the kitchen. Stay safe! ♥_

“‘Stay safe’?” Riku repeated. “What does she mean by… oh, you’ve got to be kidding me!”

Sora laughed. “That’s my mom for you!” He hopped out of bed. “Now, let’s go get breakfast; I’m hungry!”

Riku laughed too. “Still a big fan of waffles, huh?”

“Exactly!” Sora declared as he spun around. He promptly tripped over the pants he’d discarded the night before, landing on his stomach. “Owww…”

“Sora!” Riku said, scrambling out of bed and kneeling next to him. 

“I’m okay,” Sora said, starting to get up, then noticed the pair of pointy gold eyes in front of him. “What do you want?” He asked the spindly crimson heartless, or whatever it was.

“What?” Riku asked, confused. “I’m just checking you’re okay…”

Sora shook his head. “Not you.”

“Sora?”

Sora shook his head and stood up. “Sorry, I think my brain is still a bit sleepy, haha. Let’s get some food!” He darted out of the room and down the stairs.

Sora couldn’t believe it. He actually had spoken to the hallucination while someone else was there! What was he doing? In front of Riku, too! What would Riku say if he realized Sora was seeing things? Sora had to get his shit together. ...He _was_ seeing things, right? Of course he was. If there really were a heartless-thing in front of him, Riku would have said something. Instead he thought Sora was talking to him. Ugh, what a mess.

“Sora?” Riku asked, prodding him in the back. “You there?”

Sora snapped out of his thoughts; he had been standing in the kitchen staring into space. “Sorry!” Sora said, turning around and standing on his toes to give Riku a quick kiss. Riku had gotten so tall!

The two ate breakfast—Sora’s mom had made a whole scmorgosboard of things: waffles, bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs, fruit salad, home fries, and buttered toast. She must have left shortly before the two had woken, as it was still warm. Sora scooped generous portions of each onto a plate—there was more than plenty for both of them with tons left over.

“Oh! I keep forgetting to ask,” Sora suddenly exclaimed through a mouthful of food.

“Sora, swallow first,” Riku chided, looking amused.

Sora did so, then continued. “Just to confirm, we’re boyfriends, right?”

“Of course,” Riku said, and Sora’s heart soared. “Unless you don’t want to be?” Riku asked nervously.

“Oh, I definitely want to be!” Sora assured Riku, practically leaping out of his chair to tackle the silverette in a hug, forgetting all about his food.

Riku laughed happily as he wrapped his arms around Sora’s waist. “Good.”

The two decided not to get changed—well, except that Riku insisted Sora put pajama pants back on instead of walking around in his boxers, in case someone stopped by, which made sense but was annoying. The police could always have more questions, or Riku’s dad could come by, or whatever. Sora suspected that Riku also was trying not to be too… tempted. Sora had definitely noticed Riku glance at that area a few times, always looking away as though embarrassed about it. But they were boyfriends now! Riku could look at him as much as he wanted, Sora decided. Sora blushed at that thought.

“What’s on your mind?” Riku asked, noticing this as they sat on the couch, cuddling up to each other and turning on the living room TV to continue a video game they’d started.

“Nothing,” Sora answered quickly. “Um. You can have the first turn,” he decided. It was a single-player RPG; no matter the game, they’d always played through it together the first time. It had been that way since they knew what video games were.

Sora leaned into Riku. Barely ten minutes passed before his attention drifted away from the game. At first they tried to go to the previous day’s events, but Sora swiftly swerved them over to a different subject: Riku. His _boyfriend_. Sora began to draw little patterns on the top of Riku’s thigh as he gazed at Riku, not being shy about where he was looking… Sora wondered how long it would take Riku to catch onto Sora’s thoughts.

“Sora, you’re distracting me,” Riku muttered eventually.

“Am I?” Sora asked teasingly, looking up at Riku’s face and sliding his hand closer to Riku’s inner thigh rather than on top of it as he continued drawing patterns, slowly moving further up it. “How so?”

Riku gasped and paused the game, closing his eyes. “You know how…” his voice was low.

Sora’s eyes drifted down Riku’s chest and then to the slight bulge visible through the pajama pants. He breathed in sharply and inched his fingers a little closer, watching in wonder as it grew a little. Sora’s body was responding similarly.

Riku put the controller down and looked at Sora with amusement. “You’re doing that on purpose,” he accused.

“Yeah, I am,” Sora admitted, creeping his hand even closer. He needed a distraction, and this was perfect, if it was heading in the direction Sora thought it was.

Sora let out a squeak as Riku suddenly flipped over, pushing Sora so he lay on the couch with Riku hovering over him, both boys breathing heavily. Sora’s cock twitched eagerly in response.

A pause. “You gonna kiss me now or not?” Sora said playfully, feeling his own cock growing painfully hard, which was perfectly okay as Riku’s clearly was too.

“Oh, I’m gonna do more than kiss you,” Riku said huskily, then paused and blushed. “Only if that’s okay with you!” he added quickly in a more normal voice.

Sora stretched out, purposely dragging the shirt up a little to reveal his midriff. “Riku, you can do whatever you want to me,” Sora said, hoping his voice sounded as seductive as he’d intended.

Riku let out a moan and descended onto Sora.

  
  


∞♣♥☼♥♣∞

A few hours later, Sora and Riku again were found snuggled up on the couch playing the game, this time actually taking turns playing it. The two hadn’t actually done much earlier despite Sora telling Riku anything and everything was okay; they only went as far as making out and grinding with clothes on (Riku insisted on going slow when it came to sexual stuff—or rather, “not that fast”, as he said, acknowledging that bringing each other to orgasm the day after getting officially together was in fact a little fast. But they’d basically been boyfriends already with how close they were, so that was fine). Afterwards, Sora had convinced Riku to shower with him while their clothes again went in the washer—Sora’s mom may have okayed them fooling around, but Sora was still embarrassed about her finding actual evidence of that. Plus, Riku didn’t have another pair of boxers there. The clothes were washed by the time the shower was done, and the two used a couple of “aero” spells to dry them as it was much faster than the machine. Once again, Sora had insisted upon wearing Riku’s very-oversized-on-Sora shirt.

When there was a knock at the door, Riku answered it despite it being Sora’s house because Sora didn’t want to pause the game in the middle of a boss fight.

“Riku?” Kairi asked, sounding confused. “Why are you at Sora’s house and in pajamas?”

Sora decided to pause the game after all and jumped up, bounding over to the entranceway as the door closed and Kairi took her shoes off. “Hi, Kairi!” he said, sounding much more cheerful than he actually felt at seeing her—he loved Kairi and usually did enjoy seeing his red-haired best friend, but her appearance abruptly brought the incident of the previous day to the forefront of his mind as Sora realized his faux paux: he hadn’t called her that morning. Oops. He wondered how much she knew.

“Hi, Sora,” Kairi said with a smile, then looked at him curiously. “Is that Riku’s shirt?”

Sora blushed. “Um. Maybe. So, why are you here?” he asked, instinctually drawing the subject away from his and Riku’s most-likely-completely-obvious-at-the-moment relationship.

“You tell me,” Kairi replied. “You both weren’t at school today! Did you skip?”

Sora shook his head. “No,” he said, as Riku said “Yes.”

Kairi chuckled. “Well, which is it?”

“We had permission from the school,” Sora explained.

“No, you had permission,” Riku clarified. “I had planned to go to school, but then your mom stole the alarm clock!”  
  


“Details,” Sora said, waving a hand in dismissal, though he was smiling. “Besides, she called the school; they’re fine with it.”

“Are they?”

“Riku, you were there too. The principal probably expected you to stay home too when he ordered me to stay home,” Sora pointed out.

“You were ordered to stay home?” Kairi interjected, shocked. “Why? What happened? And, wait, Riku, did you say Sora’s mom stole your alarm clock?” Kairi appeared to be immensely confused and worried.

“No, she stole _my_ alarm clock,” Sora clarified. “Riku stayed here last night.”

“On a school night?” Kairi asked. “Oh. Well, I guess not a school night if you two stayed home… but you’re not sick, are you? Did you get suspended? If the principal said to stay home…”

“No, I’m not suspended…” Sora trailed off, unsure how to explain. He needed to tell her, but really didn’t want to talk about it...

“Why don’t we all get out of the entryway first?” Riku suggested, and the other two agreed, heading back to the living room couch.

“Riku, you explain,” Sora commanded once seated next Riku on the long brown suede couch, picking up the game controller. Kairi sat on Riku’s other side. “I have to finish the boss battle,” Sora informed them.

Riku rolled his eyes. “Seriously, Sora?”

“What? We’ve tried fighting this guy like ten times, and I’m really close this time! We can’t turn it off now.” Sora unpaused the game. Ten seconds later, he lost the fight. “Aww, man,” he said, falling backwards into the back of the couch in defeat. “He had like ten HP left, too!”

“Okay, explain now,” Kairi enjoined. “Why are you at home?” Then her eyes fell to Sora’s arms and she gasped. “You have bruises!” she observed. Sora was surprised it took her so long to notice them.

Sora sighed, putting the controller down. He really didn’t want to explain. He didn’t want to think about the previous day, aside from the evening with Riku. He would probably start crying if he explained again, and he already cried so much in front of so many people. Well, okay, not that many. Riku, Sora’s mom, the authorities, the nurse, and the principal were all, and they probably would have found it odd if he hadn’t cried. But this was different. He didn’t want to cry in front of Kairi.

Riku noticed Sora’s demeanor and put a hand on his shoulder. “Hey. You don’t need to say anything if you don’t want to.”

“Sora?” Kairi asked, heavy concern lacing her voice as she also noticed Sora’s body language.

“One second,” Riku said, standing up and heading to the kitchen. He returned with a newspaper, which he handed to Kairi.

Sora hadn’t looked at that day’s local paper yet, but the story must have been on the front page as Kairi immediately gasped. “That was Sora?” she asked in a whisper, apparently having already seen the article.

“Yeah,” Riku answered solemnly, sitting next to Sora again.

“There were rumors going around school about some kids being arrested,” Kairi informed them. “When you two weren’t at school, I started getting worried it was you two…”

Sora laughed at that. “I may have already gotten detention a couple of times, but I’m not that much of a delinquent!” he joked, as he tended to do when trying to avoid uncomfortable subjects.

“You thought we’d beat someone up like that?” Riku asked, sounding hurt.

“What?” Kairi asked sharply, then realized what she’d implied. “Oh! No, it didn’t even occur to me to connect it to this! My parents were talking about the article at breakfast; they didn’t mention anything about teenagers or school! I had no idea the article and arrests were related, I swear.”

“Riku, you know Kairi wouldn’t think that about us,” Sora chided. “Although technically we have beat people up before,” he mused aloud.

Kairi rolled her eyes. “Sora, beating someone up because they’re trying to destroy the universe is extremely different from beating them up for no good reason.”

“So, they arrested them all?” Sora asked Kairi, realizing he didn’t know. Neither he nor Riku had read the paper. Sora hoped so; he didn’t want to see any of them in school.

Kairi shrugged. “Dunno.” She looked through the article. “Let’s see. It looks like some were arrested, but others were put on house arrest, relative to the amount they participated… oh, and it says here that, also relative to participation, they’re all facing either long suspensions or expulsions. The school allegedly has a strict anti-bullying policy…” Kairi scoffed. “Could have fooled me. It probably only ever goes into effect when law enforcement is involved… oh my,” Kairi said, eyebrows raising at whatever she’d just read. “Did they really—oh, sorry. You don’t want to talk about it, right?”

Sora nodded. “Please. I already had to explain multiple times to the principal and police and stuff, and might have to again if it goes to court, although Riku’s dad thinks they won’t need me to since they were caught on tape and, his words, ‘they would be total morons to try to fight it’. Anyway, whatever’s in the paper is probably accurate, or at least gives the general idea. Let’s just say that I’m really thankful that cure magic exists and leave it at that, okay? These bruises were only not healed to keep World Order; the rest were,” Sora added the last bit upon noting Kairi looking slightly confused at the comment about cure magic.

Kairi nodded. “Got it. Hey, you wanna go get some ice cream on the boardwalk?” she suddenly suggested, and Sora was thankful for the topic change. Kairi likely realized Sora needed distractions from the incident, not discussions on the subject.

Sora sat up straighter. “Yes!” he declared. He was always up for ice cream. Then he frowned. “Wait. It’s still tourist season, isn’t it? And a friday night. All the city people are going to be there.”

Kairi shrugged. “It’s been dying down the past few weeks. Selphie and I went there last friday, and it wasn’t too bad.”

“You’ve been hanging out with Selphie an awful lot,” Sora commented, hoping to find out if his mom’s suspicions were true or not.

From Kairi’s blush, they were. “We’re just best friends!” she defended, catching the implication. “I needed someone to hang out with when you two were gone.”

Sora ignored the latter bit and donned a playful smile as he addressed the first part. “Oh, like Riku and I are ‘just best friends’?”

“Sora!” Riku exclaimed, face bright red. 

“Ri-ku,” Sora quipped back teasingly.

Kairi looked back and forth between the two, a look of dawning realization blooming. She grinned happily. “Oh my gosh! Seriously? Finally!” she declared. “I was getting tired of you two dancing around each other!”

“We weren’t ‘dancing around each other’!” Sora protested.

“Yeah, Sora was just completely oblivious,” Riku quipped playfully.

“Riku!” Sora said with a laugh, giving him a playful shove.

“Well, it’s true.”

Sora sighed, sobering slightly. “Yeah, I guess it is. I didn’t even know what gay was until those boys started teasing me about it.”

“They were doing more than teasing!” Riku said with a hint of anger.

“Yeah, I know…” Sora diverted the topic. “Can we just get the ice cream now? And Kairi, you never answered my question!”

“Your question?” Kairi asked, confused momentarily as she thought back, then she blushed. “Oh. Yeah, I guess we are a bit more than best friends,” she admitted. “Please don’t tell anyone though!” she practically begged.

“Why not?” Sora asked before recalling what his mom had said.

“My parents are really not okay with that,” Kairi admitted. “And neither are hers. If they find out, they’ll keep us apart at best, kick me out at worst.”

Sora gasped. “Kick you out?!” Sora knew Kairi’s parents were rather conservative, but to that extent? Sora was immensely grateful he and Riku had understanding parents. Well, the ones they lived with, rather, as they had no idea about the other ones. At least, Sora didn’t. Riku might have an idea, but he didn’t like talking about his mom and step-dad, so if he did Sora didn’t know.

Kairi nodded, looking like tears had started to form. “They’ve said as much…”

Riku frowned. “What’s going to happen if they find out about me and Sora?”

Kairi bit her lip. “They’ll probably not want us hanging out anymore,” she admitted. “So, please don’t let them find out.”

Riku glanced at Sora. “I don’t know if we can promise that,” he admitted.

“Yeah,” Sora said dejectedly, wilting slightly. “Once people start realizing I’m the one in the article, which I’m sure they will, the whole town will know I’m gay. That’s the entire reason I was targeted, and why it’s being considered a hate crime.”

“And once they realize that, it isn’t going to be difficult for them to conclude that we’re together,” Riku continued. “Especially since they already know we ‘ran away’ together.” That had also been big news in town when they returned, though Sora wasn’t sure why that factored in.

Kairi cringed slightly. “Yeah, it took a bit of convincing to get my parents to let us hang out after that, and not just because I ‘ran off to find you’.”

“They believed the rumors?” Riku asked, and Kairi nodded.

“What rumors?” Sora asked.

Kairi snorted. “Oh my gods. Come on, two teenagers running off together? You know there will be people trying to surmise why, and of course some people automatically jump to them being involved romantically.”

“Oh.” Sora blushed. Right, he should have realized that. No wonder people always called him oblivious.

“Yeah. Like I said before, my parents are not very accepting of that sort of thing…” Kairi blushed slightly. “When they first encountered me about it, more than a year ago, I, er, in order to convince them, I told them that we had been dating,” Kairi told Sora. “Sorry.”

Sora shrugged. “No big deal. You did what you had to.” Then, he frowned. “Hey, did you know I actually was gay? Apparently my mom and Riku’s dad did.”

Kairi giggled. “Sora, it was completely obvious!”

Sora gave a start of surprise. “Seriously? Do you think everyone knows?!”

Kairi shook her head. “No, I think it was only obvious to those really close to you. Selphie noticed too, but her mind’s obviously more open to that. I think most others thought—think?—me and you would end up together. Tidus and Wakka still do.”

Sora laughed. “Hey, I kinda did too for a while! Everyone kept saying that, and it made sense from a fairy tale perspective…”

Kairi giggled. “Yeah, I kinda thought that too before I ended up in your heart. Hero gets the Princess, right? Ugh. I hate heteronormativity.”

“Hetero-what?” Sora asked as Riku made a sound of agreement. It was times like this that Sora’s lack of schooling and general absence of societal interaction during those two years really showed.

“Heteronormativity,” Riku explained, “basically means the assumption that everything is straight unless specifically stated otherwise. Stories and the media usually reflect that view, especially as there’s often major outcry whenever characters that aren’t straight get added in, unless they’re there as jokes. Hence, all the fairy tales we heard growing up having Prince-Princess relationships and the Hero always ‘getting the girl’ in the end.”

Sora frowned. “That’s stupid,” he stated simply, and Kairi and Riku both mades sounds of agreement.

“Hey, if we’re going to get ice cream, we should go before it’s too late,” Kairi suggested. “It’s a half hour walk to the boardwalk, and my parents want me back by 5:30 for dinner.”

Sora glanced at the clock; it was already 3pm. “Right, let’s go… hey, think they have sea-salt flavor?”

“Ugh, I wish!” Kairi bemoaned as they headed towards the door for their shoes. Something sounded a little off about that declaration, but Sora couldn’t place what. 

“You’ve had sea-salt ice cream?” Riku asked curiously.

Kairi paused in the middle of putting on her shoe, then blinked a few times. “Huh. Actually, no, I haven’t.”

“Maybe it’s a lingering feeling from Naminé,” Sora suggested. “I got my love of it from Roxas, I think.”

Kairi nodded. “Makes sense.” She continued putting on her shoes, then paused for a moment. “Hey, wait a second. Are you two going to change, or do you plan to go to the boardwalk in pajamas?


	9. Chapter 9

“Man, I haven’t been to the boardwalk since returning,” Sora said, walking with an ice cream cone of cotton-candy-flavored soft-serve, very obviously being careful not to get it on the sleeve of the light-blue hoodie he had on—one of Riku’s old ones, Riku was amused to see. A large portion of Riku’s old clothes had been given to Sora upon returning, as they’d both grown and Sora was miraculously Riku’s old size, at least height-wise. Things were still a little big width-wise, as Sora was fairly thin; he’d always been so compared to most boys his age… although, had it always been so noticeable?

“Hey, Sora, why are you wearing a hoodie, anyway?” Riku wondered. It was a little warm for a hoodie. Jeans, too. Sora usually preferred shorts… oh. Duh.

“I don’t want everyone gawking at the bruises,” Sora said quickly, confirming Riku’s realization, then continued his prior thought. “Things have changed a lot,” Sora commented. 

“Yeah, for sure,” Riku agreed. Many of the games, food places, and little shops were different than he remembered. Large swaths of the boardwalk looked new, too.

“Oh,” Kairi said, slightly sad. “Yeah, there was a storm that knocked a lot of it down—oh, but not  _ that _ storm!” Kairi assured them, seeing their faces. “Just a regular hurricane!”

Riku inwardly sighed, and Sora relaxed slightly too. 

The group kept walking, and Sora noticed one of the arcades had been replaced with a mini aquarium. He wanted to go take a look, but then Kairi pointed out that they were on a time limit and paying for only being able to see a few exhibits would be a waste. 

“We can go there a different time,” Riku promised Sora. He wanted to see it, too. The place advertised it had penguins, and Riku was secretly rather fond of penguins.

“You mean, like a date?” Sora asked, eyes practically sparkling.

Riku blushed. “Yeah, sure,” he said, trying to sound casual despite his heart rate increasing tenfold. A date! With Sora! They were boyfriends now, after all… boyfriends! Sora was Riku’s boyfriend! Riku was Sora’s boyfriend! Riku was glad no one could read his mind, because his thoughts were embarrassingly giddy over that. It was probably all over his face though, mind-reading unnecessary.

Sora beamed. “Riku!” he called joyously, practically tackling him in a big hug. Riku wrapped his arms around Sora in response, one-hundred-percent positive he had a goofy smile to match.

Kairi giggled. “You two are adorable!” she claimed.

Next, they went to the section of carnival rides. The ancient wooden roller coaster had fallen into the sea, and no one had removed it yet—it was a little creepy actually. There was an odd feeling of… not exactly darkness, but something akin to it, coming from it. Riku noticed Sora squinting at it with a calculating look.

“Something wrong, Sora?” Riku asked, wondering if he had sensed the strangeness, too.

Sora blinked, snapping out of his thoughts. He shook his head. “Nope!” he said chipperly, in the way he did when he was trying to mask his true feelings or thoughts. Was he hiding something? Sora sighed and said, “Well, except for the coaster being dead. It’s sad.”

“You know, that thing falling into the sea was probably for the best,” Riku commented, deciding not to press the matter.

“What! That was my favorite ride!” Sora protested.

“That was a death trap that hadn’t been updated in fifty years. It broke all sorts of regulations,” Riku pointed out.

Sora shrugged. “Yeah but no one ever got injured, so.”

“It was only a matter of time.”

“Come on, stop talking! Remember, time limit,” Kairi reminded them. “It’s a half hour walk back!”

“No, only twenty,” Sora argued. 

“To your place! Mine’s further,” Kairi pointed out as they neared the ticket booth for the rides. “Oh, you have your school IDs, right? Students get discounts,” Kairi reminded them.

“Oh yeah, I forgot!” Sora proclaimed. He searched his pockets, then grinned. “I actually do have it this time!” he cheered. Riku smiled fondly at Sora’s reaction. Most places on the Destiny Islands gave discounts to students, but Sora was still always forgetting to take his student ID with him, even to school—he was lucky he hadn’t gotten in trouble yet for not having it there. 

Sora gasped as he spotted something. “Holy shit. Is that one of those gravitron things? We need to ride that!” Sora grabbed Riku’s hand and began dragging him towards the ticket booth.

They rode quite a few rides—thankfully they’d saved a lot of munny on their adventures—before Kairi reminded them she had to leave. Sora then remembered he hadn’t left his mom a note, so it was definitely a good idea to head back. She’d be home from work by now and getting worried.

Of course, Sora then nearly immediately—and adorably—got distracted when he saw a large moogle doll as a prize for a game. Riku vaguely wondered why moogles were so pervasive that, despite none actually existing on the Islands, their visage was still found on it in the form of toys.

“It’s like the one I had as a kid!” Sora proclaimed. “I wonder what happened to that doll…”

“Didn’t you accidentally drop it in the ocean?” Riku reminded Sora.

“Oh yeah,” Sora recalled. “Didn’t we both almost drown trying to get it back?”

“Yup,” Riku confirmed. It had been while they were out on Riku’s dad’s small fishing boat, and Riku’s dad had to rescue them when both Sora and Riku, ages five and six, immediately leapt into the water to try to retrieve it.

“Riku, be a good boyfriend and win him a new one,” Kairi suggested. 

Riku felt his face heat up. “What?”

“Yeah, win me a new one!” Sora said happily. “Please?” He gave Riku the infamous puppy-dog eyes. 

Riku sighed fondly. He could never resist when Sora gave him that look. Not that he would have anyway. Riku turned to the game. It was a simple one, throwing a baseball at targets, but there was no doubt it would require precision and strength few people had to win, especially since to get the big moogle doll you had to hit three of the more difficult targets with the three balls given—or spend enough money on multiple attempts to get points towards the large prize through hitting easier targets.

Unfortunately for the game’s host, Riku had both precision and strength thanks to years of fighting. The guy’s mouth was practically hanging open as Riku hit one, two, three of the ‘large prize’ targets in a row.

“You’re the first person to ever do that in one try,” the man said in amazement. “Are you a ball player or something?”

“Or something,” Riku said ambiguously.

“Well, here’s your prize,” the man said, handing Riku the meter-high moogle doll. He smiled. “I’m sure your girlfriend there will be happy.”

“My what?” Riku said blankly as he accepted the doll, then realized the man meant Kairi. “Oh, no, she’s not my girlfriend!” He said hurriedly. “Er. Bye!” He turned and hurried back over to Kairi and Sora, who were both snickering.

“Here’s your doll,” Riku said to Sora, flustered as he held it out to him. Sora took it, and to Riku’s shock gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. Riku subtly glanced over at the game both, and the man looked completely flabbergasted. Well, he was the one who assumed; it wasn’t that shocking, was it? They got tens of thousands of tourists every year, surely the man must have seen other gay couples before.

Tourists like the ones currently on the boardwalk, some who were looking at them curiously. 

“Let’s go,” Kairi said, clearly realizing how public they were being and the dangers of that.

Riku could tell the exact moment Sora realized, too—his face visibly paled, and he nearly dropped the moogle doll. Sora wrapped one arm—barely, it was so large—around the doll, grabbed Riku’s hand, and practically pulled him off the boardwalk and down the street, Kairi following.

The trio took a slightly different route home that looped around to pass by Kairi’s house first—Sora and Riku remembered to not hold hands near it, and Sora gave Kairi a half-hug at her request so her parents would maybe continue thinking they were a thing. Riku felt a small pang of completely misplaced jealousy at that, to his total embarrassment—that was supposed to be in the past, and logically he knew neither of them had any interest in not just each other but the entire gender of the other. If only he’d known that before the Islands fell…

“Riku, you’re brooding again. Stop blaming yourself for stuff,” Sora said, hopping up to him as they began walking.

“What? I’m not!” Riku protested.

“Yeah, and I’m a cat. I know that look you get. You’re thinking about the past.”

Riku quieted for a moment as they walked, Sora waiting for a reply. “Okay, fine, you caught me,” Riku admitted after a few blocks. “I was… remembering. I know on the dark beach I told you I was jealous of you, but I was also jealous of her. Of… you two. Together. Everyone kept saying you two were destined… I didn’t fully know why I was so jealous at the time, but in retrospect, it was my crush on you, which I hadn’t fully realized yet was a crush on you… or rather, didn’t want to believe it was, more accurately.”

Sora frowned. “But, wasn’t that jealousy what Ansem manipulated? So… if you didn’t want to admit you had a crush on a boy, does that mean gay panic basically caused the Islands falling?” Sora said teasingly.

Riku almost choked in his hurry to correct that. “Sora! No, I’ve known about that since I was ten. I mean, I thought you liked Kairi. So if I did have a crush on you, I thought it’d be unrequited. That would have been torture…”

Sora scoffed. “Well, that’s silly. It’d be impossible to resist you even if I were straight.”

Riku felt his face redden. “Sora! How can you just say—wait, I thought you didn’t fully realize you were gay until yesterday?”

Sora shrugged, blushing too. “I would have realized it sooner if you’d taken your shirt off sooner.”

Riku blinked. “What?” he said intelligently, now very conscious of the fact that somewhere along the lines they had stopped walking and Sora had managed to align himself so close to Riku that their chests were practically touching.

Sora wrapped his arms around Riku and looked up at him while Riku looked down. The moogle doll lay abandoned on the sidewalk. Sora stood on his tiptoes to place a kiss on Riku’s lips, but only managed to maintain the kiss for a nanosecond before he lost his balance. Riku placed his hands on Sora’s waist to hold him in place as he leaned down so Sora didn’t have to stretch, which Sora quickly took advantage of.

After a few minutes of increasingly heated kisses, a car drove by and honked its horn, causing the two to leap apart. Riku swerved around to look at the car zooming away. He recognized that car… 

“Was that your dad?” Sora asked, wide-eyed.

“...Yeah,” Riku confirmed, watching the car pull into a familiar driveway up ahead. That was going to be awkward, seeing as his house was where the two were headed. Riku wanted to stay at Sora’s again, but he’d need clothes, as he didn’t want to waste so much water doing laundry loads with only two or three items. 

Sora picked up the moogle doll, and the two finished their walk in slightly embarrassed quiet, hand-in-hand of course.

“Sora!” Riku’s dad greeted the brunette with a big hug—well, as much as he could with a sizeable moogle doll in-between—as they entered the house. “It’s been a while!”

“Um. Not really? I was here last weekend,” Sora reminded him, cringing slightly, to Riku’s brief confusion, then he realized why.

“Careful, dad! He’s still pretty banged up,” Riku warned. Riku’s dad liked to hug tightly.

“Oh, Sorry!” Riku’s dad released Sora. “Anyway, a week can be a long time, especially in my line of work,” Riku’s dad defended his earlier statement. “Oh, and your mom left a voicemail, wondering where you two were.”

Sora cringed. “Yeah, I forgot to leave a note. We just went to the boardwalk with Kairi.”

“Oh! How is Kairi doing? She’s dating that girl, Selphie, right?”

Sora and Riku looked at each other worriedly. “You know about that?” Sora asked.

Riku’s dad frowned. “Well, they’re pretty obvious… is it supposed to be a secret?”

“Yeah. Her parents are very homophobic,” Riku explained.

Riku’s dad let out a small whistle. “That’s right, I can’t believe I almost forgot. When her mom was mayor, she tried introducing legislation about that… it didn’t pass, but it was close… yeah, they’re definitely pretty out there with that.” Riku’s dad never knew Kairi’s parents very well outside of legal matters. Unlike Sora and Riku, who lived down the street from each other, Kairi lived in a more luxurious section of town and her parents were a bit, well… snobbish was the word. Plus the whole political differences thing.

“So,” Riku’s dad said, after a beat. “Are you staying here tonight, Sora?”

Riku answered. “No, I’m going to stay at Sora’s again, if that’s okay.”

Riku’s dad nodded. “Of course. Oh, and just to confirm, you two are dating now, right?”

Riku and Sora both blushed in response. Riku should have anticipated the question; that would be the proper—and accurate—conclusion after seeing them passionately kiss.

“Well, just be sure to use protection,” Riku’s dad said, dead serious.

“Dad!” Riku exclaimed, covering his face in embarrassment.

“We’re not there yet!” Sora defended, waving his hands.

“Yet,” Sora’s dad noted the word.

“Oh my gods,” Riku lamented. “Not you too! Sora’s mom was bad enough… I’m going to go pack.” He hurried to his room, Sora sheepishly following.

  
  


∞♣♥☼♥♣∞

Sora collapsed on his bed. The crimson-tipped heartless thing jumped onto his chest. It was weightless; of course it was, it had been conjured from his mind. 

“You know, that was pretty creepy earlier,” Sora told the creature. It tilted its head, seeming confused, so Sora clarified, “Sitting on top of that dead roller coaster with a bunch of your spiky buddies looking all ominous, silhouetted against the sun.”

The creature appeared to shrug… huh? Did it actually understand? Hmmm. You know what...

“So. Do you have a name?” Sora asked.

He didn’t expect the thing to understand him, but apparently it did. It looked thoughtful for a second, then slowly shook its head to signal ‘no’.

“Huh. Well, let’s give you one, then,” Sora said, thinking. “Um… how about… he looked around the room for ideas, eyes falling upon a box of Oreos. “How about ‘Cookie’?”

The thing shook its head vigorously.

“Okay… Bunny?” Sora ventured. Another shake. “Pocky? No… Cricket? Coconut? Paopu?” He was just throwing out random words now. The thing stomped it’s pointy foot. “Sorry, but I’m bad at names!” Sora said.

The thing nodded, then shook slightly. Laughter?

“Okay… how about a more human name,” Sora tried. “James? Kyo? Harold? Max? Jake? Ventus?” Sora wasn’t sure where that last one came from; he’d never heard anyone called that before. The thing looked angry. “Oh, maybe you’re a girl? Let’s see. Shiki? Amy? Hinata? Becky? Vicky? Aqua?” Sora wasn’t sure where that last one had come from, either. The thing only looked angrier. “Oh! Maybe you’re neither?” Sora realized. “Let’s see, neutral names… Jordan? Logan? Taylor? Aiden? Alex? Terra?” Huh. Yet another unusual name Sora had never heard… or, wait, didn’t a girl have that in a comic book? That must be where he got that. It meant earth or something, an apt name as she had earth powers. He’d never heard of any guys with it though… had he?

The thing shook its head and stomped its feet, then jumped next to Sora and started moving his arms against the blanket, looking towards Sora and back to its arms as though trying to tell Sora something. It seemed immensely agitated.

Sora squinted, then realized what it was signalling. “Oh! Did you remember your name after all? Are you trying to draw your name?” He asked in wonder. He hadn’t expected the thing to be quite so sentient. “Um, start over please… hm. V? That’s the first letter?”

The thing nodded, then drew the next letter. Sora sounded them out. “A…” it nodded. “N... L?” It shook its head. “Oh. I!” It nodded. “T… A… 5? No, S.” The thing stood still. Sora connected the letters, sounding it out in his mind for a moment before piecing the letters together. It was an unusual name. “Vanitas? That’s your name?”

The thing—Vanitas—nodded happily.

“That’s long,” Sora said. “I’m calling you Vani instead,” he decided. A cute name for a cute creature.

Vanitas looked offended.

Sora laughed. “Nope, that’s your name now!” Sora informed it, and Vani slouched its shoulders in resignation. Wait. It? That seemed rude… “Are you a boy or a girl?” Sora asked. The creature shrugged. “Okay. Um. Which do you want to be?” The creature pointed at Sora. “A boy?” Sora surmised. The creature nodded. 

Sora beamed. “Awesome! So, why are you around? Is it to protect me?” Sora tried.

The thing nodded slowly, although it seemed reluctant to admit such.

“That’s awesome,” Sora told him, happy he guessed right. “I have my very own… uh, what exactly are you? Not to be rude.”

Vani seemed to frown (that was the vibe Sora got, at least; Vani had no mouth, only a pointy snout). He began writing again.

“Flood?” Sora asked when it finished, and Vani nodded. “Huh. That’s an interesting species name… oh, sorry, I don’t mean to be rude!” Sora said hurriedly, but the flood just shrugged in response.

“Sora?” Riku asked as he entered the room, and Sora jumped slightly. He had briefly forgotten that Riku was in the house, brushing his teeth before bed. “Were you talking to someone?”

“No!” Sora said too quickly, sitting up abruptly and turning to Riku.

Riku looked at Sora for a moment in contemplation. “Huh. Could have sworn… nevermind.” He grinned as he hopped onto the bed next to Sora and put an arm around his waist. “So, gonna be wearing my shirt for the foreseeable future?” Riku teased, eyes trailing down to Sora’s lack of pajama pants—and giving Sora the perfect way to distract Riku from the subject of Sora communicating with a hallucination.

“Well,” Sora said, looking at Riku with what he hoped was a seductive expression, eyes flickering to the silverette’s lips. “Maybe I just need some help taking it off…”

Riku sharply inhaled. His hand trailed downwards to the hem of the shirt, and Sora let out a small gasp as his cock twitched in anticipation. He quickly twisted and straddled Riku’s lap, breathing heavily. Riku’s lips met Sora’s without prompting.

“I love you so much,” Sora whispered as the kiss broke.

“I love you too,” Riku replied between breaths. “More than anything in the universe.”

“Oh, way to one-up me,” Sora complained playfully, pressing their foreheads together as his hands trailed from Riku’s shoulders down his collarbone, then across Riku’s chest, eventually finding his boyfriend’s nipples through his shirt and thumbing them. What initially had been a plan to distract Riku with a kiss had now become a mission to satisfy Sora’s own raging libido. Why hadn’t they started doing sexual stuff with each other years ago? Sora cursed his obliviousness. Well, now they were going to make up for all that lost time, Sora decided.

Riku gasped in response, then Sora moved to grab Riku’s hands, currently on Sora’s waist, to guide them down his hips to the hem of his shirt, which was actually pooled around Sora’s upper thighs due to its size. Sora felt Riku’s cock twitch through the thin fabric of the boxers and pajamas separating them, and Sora suppressed a moan.

“You sure?” Riku asked breathlessly.

“Always,” Sora said, voice low. “Like I said yesterday, you can do whatever you want to me…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: The hurricane knocking the death-trap roller coaster into the sea is a true story! (I think the coaster is actually still there.) 
> 
> In this and other fics of mine, since we don't know a lot about the geography and demographics of the Destiny Islands, I've based them on the area I grew up in. Although not an archipelago, I lived in a small beach town along the ocean in an area that consisted of many small towns, some which were on their own little islands with bridges connecting them (what little bits of Sora's island we see in the game reminded me of them; the population I chose for Sora's island was based on theirs). They rely mostly on tourism to stay afloat, which includes boardwalk areas like the trio visited (one which does have an aquarium! With penguins!). There is a larger town nearby that has the hotels, courthouse, county governmental buildings, and shopping centers, which is why I included a larger nearby island with such. Their school, too, I based on my own high school, where we were allowed to leave school grounds for lunch (most of us went to the nearby downtown area, which had some food places, most of which gave student discounts; there was also a park nearby, although it sadly had no fountain, just some statues and gazebos. Which are nice! But a fountain would have been nicer).


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is basically a double chapter, clocking in at over 6400 words. It's a very large scene in the middle with a smaller one before and after it; both scenes belong with it, and it didn't feel right to cut the larger scene off in the middle.

_ Yo. Might wanna get up. _

“Ngh…five more minutes…” Sora grumbled, half-asleep, not wanting to move as he was comfortably cuddled in Riku’s arms.

_ You’ll regret it if you don’t. _

“But it’s saturday…” Sora sleepily reminded the voice. “I can sleep in on saturdays…”

_ Well, whatever. Don’t say you weren’t warned. _

“Yeah, yeah, whatever to you too,” Sora mumbled, cuddling in closer to Riku, who was still as asleep as a brick. A very warm, soft, and snuggly brick. For all his attempts at remaining cool and collected in general, Riku practically melted around Sora. Again Sora cursed his prior obliviousness; although, he had to wonder if, despite his insistence otherwise, Riku had been a bit oblivious too… no, it was probably anxiety-related, not obliviousness. Riku was actually a pretty anxious person under his chill appearance, so he probably had actually noticed Sora’s affection, as he had told him, but had then questioned it, wondering if he’d deluded himself or something. Silly Riku. How could Sora possibly like anyone else? Then again, there had been that thing with Kairi, so maybe the anxiety was slightly justified.

A minute later, Sora finally blinked open his eyes at the sound of a certain red-haired someone laughing in the doorway of his room. Speak of the devil.

“Kairi!” Sora exclaimed in shock, sitting up abruptly. Riku mumbled something sleepily and tried to pull Sora back down, apparently not registering the girl in the room. Sora gave him the giant moogle doll to hold instead.

“Oh my gods,” Kairi choked out through the laughter. “When your mom said you might be naked, I didn’t think she was serious!”

Sora rolled his eyes; of course his mom would say something like that. Sora looked down, inwardly sighing at the fact that that wasn’t true, both in relief because Kairi wouldn’t see them actually naked and in despair that despite Sora’s efforts Riku had insisted they not take everything off. Why did he have to insist on not going fast? Sora wanted to go fast. They’d declared their love already, after all—if they could go fast emotionally, why couldn’t they go fast physically too? Sora wanted to—okay, maybe he shouldn’t think about that for risk of getting a boner in front of Kairi.

“We still have boxers on,” Sora pointed out. They were definitely dirty though; Sora hoped that wasn’t obvious. Oh, and Sora also had on his crown necklace that he never took off; Riku had given it to him when they were kids. Sora liked having that constant reminder of Riku on him… oh. Yet another sign he had missed. Stupid hereronormativity, ruining his chance to have had this type of relationship with Riku years prior. If they had, they’d definitely be having sex by now. Wait, don’t think about that now, Sora reminded himself as his cock slightly twitched at the thought.

Kairi strolled across the room and plopped down on the bed, seemingly unconcerned with the boys’ states of dress. “Close enough.” She poked Riku on the side.

“Ugh, five more minutes,” Riku muttered, curling around the moogle doll.

“Ri-ku,” Kairi chimed.

Riku blinked open his eyes, blushing vigorously as he finally realized the situation he was in. “Sora, why didn’t you warn me she’d be visiting!” Riku moaned, pushing away the doll and turning to press his face into the pillow.

“Hey, she surprised me, too,” Sora replied, patting Riku on the shoulder. He turned to Kairi. “Why are you here so early?”

“Well, for one, it’s nearly noon, which by most standards is not early,” Kairi pointed out. “Anyway, Selphie’s having another pool party, and BOTH of you are coming with,” Kairi informed them.

Sora frowned. “I don’t know,” Sora said. “I’m supposed to be severely injured,” he reminded her. “Still kinda am,” he said, gesturing to the remaining bruises. “Wearing long pants and a hoodie will draw just as much attention to it as showing skin would.”

Kairi wilted slightly. “Oh, right. I forgot,” she admitted, then perked up again. “Wait, that’s what cover-up is for! We’ll just use that! And then you’ll have a good excuse not to go in the pool this time, too.”

“You didn’t go in the pool last time?” Riku asked, slightly confused. “Why? You love swimming.”

Sora merely gestured to his chest in response, where the scarred over stab wound lay. It would have triggered a whole lot of questions from everyone which Sora didn’t want to answer.

“Ah, right. Yeah, I won’t be going in the pool either then, come to think of it,” Riku decided. When Kairi looked confused he gestured to the scar on his side.

Kairi sighed. “You two are so silly. Okay, fine. No party, then; I’m taking you two to a tattoo parlor.”

“What? Why?” Sora and Riku simultaneously asked in surprise.

Kairi rolled her eyes. “To cover them up, silly. Well, only if you want to,” she amended. “That way you can go swimming and stuff while getting happy comments instead of uncomfortable questions!”

Sora bit his lip. Did he want it covered up? He hadn’t thought about that before.

Riku shook his head. “No. I’m proud of my scar; I got it protecting Sora,” he said adamantly. “I’m not ashamed of that… I just don’t want people asking questions I can’t explain right now. It’s not exactly a normal wound, and I don’t yet have a cover story.”

Sora blushed at that. “Now I feel obligated to keep mine too,” he said teasingly, voice cheerful even though he didn’t actually feel happy about it; unlike Riku, Sora did feel shame about his scar. His scar had some heavier baggage attached. Not that taking a slash for someone wasn’t heavy, but, well, the circumstances had been very different. Even though he had gotten it to save a friend too, it brought back a slew of bad memories whenever Sora saw it, one of which was Riku fighting him while possessed. Whereas Riku had a sense of pride about his scar, Sora’s scar brought feelings of (probably misplaced) guilt and sadness.

Kairi rolled her eyes. “You don’t have to try to be so noble,” she said, predicting Sora’s thoughts. “Yes, you got it for me. But I know it makes you uncomfortable to think about; if you get it covered up, it could help you heal.”

Sora thought about this. “Well, okay,” he decided. He’d always wanted a tattoo, so why not? Then he realized something. “But wait. I thought you can’t get one until you’re seventeen?” Riku was, but Sora was still sixteen.

Kairi shook her head. “Wakka has one, remember?” 

“Wakka got it illegally at some shady place in the city,” Riku pointed out. “You are not going to do that, Sora.”

Sora wilted slightly. “Aww, man…”

Kairi bit her lip, thinking. “Henna, then,” she concluded. “Selphie has a kit! It’s not the best as a cover-up, but it’s something. I can draw a design for you!” Kairi suggested excitedly, something seeming a bit off again.

Sora turned to the redhead. “Since when can you draw?” he wondered. Had she refined her skills while they were gone?

Kairi shrugged sheepishly. “Since we got back,” she said simply, then it clicked. Right, Naminé loved drawing; it must be a carry-over, like how they now liked sea-salt ice-cream.

“Can you really sit still enough for that though?” Riku teased Sora.

Sora cringed. Right, henna needed to dry; Sora recalled a time when they were younger when Kairi had tried to apply nail polish on Sora, which had not ended well. “Okay, maybe not. Scratch that, no tattoo.”

“Aww,” Kairi lamented, more disappointed than Sora would have expected.

“Sorry, Na—Kairi,” Sora said. Had he really almost called her Naminé? That was weird. She was giving off more Naminé vibes than usual, though.

Kairi smiled gently. “It’s okay,” she said humbly. Yeah, that was definitely more resemblant of Naminé than Kairi. Well, technically the two had merged... right? 

“So, we’re going to the party, then?” Riku asked Kairi.

“You actually want to go?” Sora asked.

Riku shrugged. “Sure, why not? We haven’t seen much of anyone else since returning, and I haven’t been in a pool in years.”

“What about the scar?” Sora asked.

“I’ll figure out a way to explain it by the time we get there.” Riku got off the bed and stretched arms high, then realized he was only in boxers and withdrew with a blush.

“Get where?” Sora’s mom asked as she entered the room, ignoring the boys’ state of dress.

“They’re going with me to Selphie’s pool party tonight!” Kairi declared. “After I take them shopping for outfits.”

“Wait, what? Outfits?” Riku asked in surprise. Sora, too, had not expected that.

“Of course,” Kairi said, as though it were obvious. “Neither of you are fashionable. That needs to be fixed.” Yup, that was definitely all Kairi now, no Naminé in sight.

Sora’s mom giggled. “Good luck with that; I’ve been trying to make him fashionable for sixteen years now… oh, and Riku, dear, you might want to heal those hickeys before you leave,” she casually reminded the silverette. Sora wasn’t surprised anymore at her comments, secretly happy that he had a mom who was so nonchalant about all this, and again noted just how young his mom was, surprised he’d never realized that before she said something. Kairi, on the other hand, looked flabbergasted for a moment before she collected herself, apparently accepting it too. It was Sora’s mom, after all—not a far stretch in all honesty that she’d joke about such instead of becoming horrified like most parents.

Riku looked down at himself, and his eyes widened as Sora and Kairi snickered too… and so did Vani, sitting next to Sora. Well, he shook in a way that resembled laughter, at least—he never actually made a sound. Sora crawled out of bed too and blushed as he examined the myriad of marks on his boyfriend’s neck, chest, and stomach before Riku muttered a quick “cura” spell to heal them all, and suddenly it was as though they were never there.

“Again, that is so useful,” Sora’s mom commented.

“Oh! Almost forgot.” Kairi turned to Sora’s mom. “Do you have any cover-up? For Sora’s bruises. I don’t want him attempting to wear a sweatshirt at a pool party.”

  
  


∞♣♥☼♥♣∞

To say Sora was nervous about the party was an understatement. How many there had connected him to being the victim of the cruel hate crime in the paper? Would people mention the cover-up? Kairi had done an excellent job on it, to the point Sora couldn’t even tell it was there unless looking really closely, and it was supposedly fairly water-proof in case something splashed on him, but still. And what about him and Riku? Would the others there know already, or figure it out? They had decided to keep the relationship hidden, until it inevitably came out on its own, but that didn’t mean people wouldn’t realize it today or already had. Kairi had said Tidus and Wakka still thought Sora would end up with her—she and Selphie hadn’t even told those two about their own relationship—so they most likely wouldn’t notice, but Sora didn’t know the other people well at all, or even who they were. He’d mostly stayed around Kairi at the last party, nervous about interacting with others. The same would probably happen today. But still.

Sora was also a bit self-conscious about the outfit Kairi had put him in. She’d insisted they go to the mall beforehand, saying that, even though Sora and Riku were adamant that they did not require new clothes, she needed a new outfit and wanted their help finding one. Unfortunately, it had been a trap. Riku must have known, as he’d gotten out of it by claiming he had to watch his sister while his dad ran errands, as though his dad couldn’t have just taken the kid to the grocery store. Thus, Sora was left to survive Kairi’s plot on his own, the plot being getting new clothes for him. Kairi told Sora she just wanted to see him in the clothes for fun, but then she’d gone and bought them for him herself. Sora shouldn’t have been surprised, as that had happened in the past—Kairi’s family gave her a much more generous allowance than either he or Riku ever had, and she wasn’t shy about sharing it no matter how much either protested. The outfits were designer, of course; Sora didn’t even want to know the prices. He wore black denim capris, shredded at the bottom with ripped knees, and a red v-neck shirt that accentuated his crown necklace. She even bought him a new pair of sandals, red and black to match the outfit, and a similarly matching wristband! Earrings, too; Sora’s ears had already been pierced as some nice battle accessories came in earring form—even though during the incident the other day one had been stolen and the ear torn, cure magic had taken care of that. So, Kairi insisted Sora put on some very simple silver studs. Apparently that was a trend now? Anyway, his outfit matched the current fashion trends perfectly, but Sora was never known to be fashionable. Whereas Sora did like the aesthetic of it, he preferred comfy clothing, not denim stuff. On her part, Kairi had found a pink sundress—also cut so that it accentuated her usual necklace—with a yellow sunflower design and a matching sunflower barrett for her hair. She’d even found a sunflower-design bangle bracelet to adorn her wrist. Riku, having successfully avoided Kairi’s fashion fever, was more comfortable in his outfit than Sora was in his, wearing simple loose khaki shorts and a blue t-shirt with a band logo Sora didn’t recognize.

“Whoa, looking good, Sora!” Wakka said in greeting as the trio arrived at the party. “Let me guess, Kairi dressed you?” Wakka himself was wet and wearing yellow swim shorts, clearly having just exited the pool.

Sora made a sound of annoyance and Kairi and Riku both laughed while Selphie and Tidus joined them, the latter also just from the pool and the former wearing a crop top and denim miniskirt, holding some sort of drink in a curvy glass with a toothpick umbrella stabbing through various fruit pieces. Selphie always liked making everything super fancy; glancing at the drink table it seemed all the glasses looked like that, and there was a whole tray of the fruit umbrellas. There were a lot of others at the party, many more than the previous week, most of them getting drinks or snacks or swimming or in the hot tub, but none of them paid the group any attention. Well, the boys, at least; Kairi waved at a few who waved back. Apparently she was pretty popular, though whether it was because of her own charm or because of being Selphie’s ‘best friend’ was unknown.

“I knew it,” Wakka said. “You’re never that fashionable without help.” Sora bit back a scowl at the comment and laughed a bit instead. It was true, but the jibe still hurt.

“You look great too, Kairi,” Selphie commented, looking fairly flirtatious, but neither Wakka nor Tidus caught that. Neither had been told about their relationship, and apparently were completely oblivious to it. Perhaps that was the heteronormativity bias; now that Sora knew that existed, he seemed to be noticing it everywhere.

“Yeah, she does,” Tidus appraised, taking just a moment too long to examine her outfit. Sora narrowed his eyes, wondering if he should say something, but Riku’s own glare seemed to get the point across to Tidus, who cringed and muttered something under his breath.

“So, why weren’t you in school yesterday?” Tidus asked Sora. Sora inwardly sighed. Of course that’d be the first thing that came up.

“Yeah, and come to think of it, neither were you, Riku,” Wakka recalled. 

“Thought maybe you two ran away again,” Selphie said with a wink. Well, that answered the question of whether she knew of the relationship or not. Kairi had told him earlier that although she hadn’t told her, Selphie had excellent ‘gaydar’, so had clocked them both as gay ages before the Islands fell. Wouldn’t be a far stretch for her to connect things.

Sora shrugged. “We skipped.”

“Whaaaa? Seriously, Sora? You actually skipped school? You?!” Tidus said, his mouth practically hanging open. 

“So did Riku!” Sora protested.

“Yeah but we’d expect it of him,” Tidus said simply.

“What?! Since when?” Riku asked belligerently. Sora tried not to laugh; somehow, Riku was still pegged as the delinquent despite Sora having had way more detentions—most of them for skipping. 

“Alright, you three, break it up,” Wakka said, in an amused voice indicating he was used to such things.

“I’m gonna get a drink,” Sora said, eyeing the drink table. “Anyone want me to grab them something?”

“Nah, we were about to go start a game of blitzball in the pool!” Wakka said excitedly, gesturing to a group of guys gathered in the water. “You all in? Brought swimsuits, right?”

“Kairi and I brought ours,” Riku said, gesturing to Kairi’s bag. “Sora doesn’t want to swim.”

“Yeah, sorry,” Sora said, and he was. He actually wanted to, but the cover-up and scar said no.

“Aww, that’s no fun!” Tidus said. “You sure? We’re still one short…”

“I’ll play,” Kairi offered.

Tidus raised an eyebrow. “You? Can you even play?”

Selphie glared at Tidus. “Of course she can. She isn’t the star tennis player for nothing, you know!” she defended Kairi, and Kairi blushed in response.

As Kairi and Riku went to get changed while Tidus and Wakka went to the pool, Sora wandered over to get a drink with Selphie following.

“You know, there’s actual rum in the punch, and there’s beer and wine coolers, too. The pitchers there have some different sangrias,” Selphie said, eyes glistening.

“Really?” Sora asked. “Your parents allow that?”

Selphie laughed. “They’re out of town for the next few days. What they don’t know won’t hurt them,” she said mischievously. 

“Hmm. There’s a lot of things they don’t know, isn’t there?” Sora said, giving her a wink like she had to him earlier. He began pouring himself some of the punch; Sora liked rum quite a bit, as he’d discovered in Port Royal. 

“Sora!” she exclaimed, blushing and covering her mouth, her laughter belying her show of shock. Then, Selphie gasped. “You’re wearing cover-up?” she asked in a whisper. “Is that why you don’t want to go swimming? What happened?”

Sora looked down at his arms. It still looked impossible to tell to him. “Um. How do you…?”

“Oh, I can always tell,” the girl said. “Call it a sixth-sense. So, spill. Get in a fight?”

Sora cringed. “Kairi didn’t tell you, then?” Selphie shook her head and Sora continued, “Oh. Thought she might have, considering you two are—mphm!”

Selphie covered Sora’s mouth with her hand and hissed, “Quiet about that!” She backed up. “You can imply it, but don’t say it, got it?”

Sora nodded. “Got it.”

“Good. Ugh, I can’t believe Kairi told you about that,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Should have figured though.”

Sora shook his head. “Actually, she didn’t. Riku and I figured it out.”

“What?” Selphie squeaked. “How? Is it obvious? Do others know?”

Sora shook his head and waved his hand that wasn’t holding the drink. “No no no! Not at all! We just have a… different perspective, I guess you can say.” He took a sip of the punch; it was really good! Although, yeah, definitely had obvious rum.

Selphie frowned, then her eyes widened as she realized what he’d meant. “Ooooh. So it wasn’t my imagination! You two actually are, you know?”

Sora blushed and nodded. Guess she hadn’t known, just suspected before. “Yeah. We’re keeping it secret too, though, so.”

Selphie nodded. “I totally get it. But your mom’s cool with it, right?” Sora nodded and she continued, “That’s really awesome.” She sighed. “My parents are unfortunately the opposite. Super traditional.”

The two wandered over to some long pool chairs, and then chatted amicably for a long while, just catching up on things. Sora was happy about that; maybe he shouldn’t have been shying away from his old friends so much. He couldn’t talk about his adventure, but Selphie had more than enough to talk about so Sora basically just needed to smile and nod while occasionally commenting. He even decided to tell her about the incident two days prior, which she was extremely concerned about of course but promised to keep it on the down low for now, acknowledging that it would get out soon although it thankfully seemed like it hadn’t yet. 

The little flood named Vani joined Sora on his lap, and Sora resisted the urge to try to pet him. He’d tried before and his hand just went through, causing the flood to get angry and vanish. A couple other floods—a spiky shadow, two rabbits, and a floating mushroom—had appeared too during their conversation, particularly during the part about the incident; were they tied to Sora’s emotions? That was something to think about.

Tidus and Wakka soon joined the two, both with cans of soda, and Sora shifted to sit sideways on the long beach chair instead of laying on it, giving Wakka a place to sit. Sephie did the same to hers, making room for Tidus. Both left room for Riku and Kairi, who were getting drinks; it seemed Kairi was having trouble deciding which sangria she wanted, sampling a tiny bit of each. Sora had done that before, too, when he went to refill his drink, before settling on more punch.

Tidus looked over there, then turned to Sora. “So, what’s the deal? I thought you and Kairi were together, but now she’s over there with Riku and you’re over here flirting with Selph.”

Sora blinked in surprise. “Huh? We’re not flirting.”

“No? You’ve been talking for nearly an hour. Lots of laughing and whatnot.”

Selphie sighed. “Because we’re friends, Tidus. Friends are allowed to talk to each other; it isn’t flirting every time it’s a guy and a girl.” It sounded like an old argument. 

“Well, if you say so,” Tidus said. “But Kairi and Riku are definitely flirting over there. You’re not jealous, Sora?”

Sora rolled his eyes. “They’re just friends.”

“I dunno, they’re being awfully affectionate…”

“Yeah, because they always are,” Sora argued. "They are definitely not flirting."

“Yeah? How can you be so sure?” Tidus asked. Sora was becoming uncomfortable; he didn’t like how Tidus liked teasing like this. Another spiky shadow flood appeared. Yup, emotion-based.

“I just am,” Sora said, not knowing how to respond otherwise seeing as the reason he knew for certain was that they were both gay, yet neither were out yet.

“Yeah, but—”

Wakka interrupted. “Can it, Tidus,” he said, and Sora inwardly sighed in relief.

“Hey, what’s going on?” Riku asked, arriving with Kairi. He sat next to Sora; he started to move to put his hand around his waist, then stopped himself. Sora had to stop himself from leaning into Riku’s side, too. He really wanted to; Sora was getting a little overwhelmed and wanted the comfort. Kairi and Selphie seemed to be in the same situation. Neither Tidus nor Wakka noticed, or if they did they didn’t think twice. It was subtle, though.

“Kairi! Selphie was flirting with your boyfriend,” Tidus said, ever the instigator.

Sora growled, feeling a spike of frustration. “I told you, we’re not—”

Kairi put her hand up. “Tidus,” Kairi said curtly. “We’ve discussed this.” She left it at that.

Tidus muttered something under his breath no one could catch but didn’t try to press the matter further. Sora wondered what exactly had been discussed to yield such a reaction from Tidus, of all people. He found inciting arguments to be fun for some reason, taking every opportunity he could to rile people up.

Vani looked like he was ready to attack Tidus. Sora tried to subtly nudge him to say it was okay, pretending there was a bug around. Which, he did look a tiny bit like a big bug, come to think of it. Well, okay, not really. There wasn’t really anything in the animal kingdom that compared to how the shadow floods looked. Sora imagined they’d be similar to what might form if lightning and darkness combined and became sentient.

Riku nudged Sora. “You okay?” he asked quietly.

Sora snapped out of his thoughts. “Haha, yeah, sorry, just a little spacy, you know me.” he felt a little warm, too… oh, was he feeling the rum now? Yeah, he was definitely feeling it now.

Wakka was looking at Riku and Sora, contemplative. “Hey, so you never did actually tell us what happened those two years you vanished,” he pointed out casually. “Like, yeah, you ran away, but what exactly did you do?”

Sora and Riku both froze briefly. Sora collected himself first, then said, trying for nonchalance, “We travelled.” He shrugged. “You know, explored the world and stuff…” 

“But then the police caught you, right?” Tidus asked.

Sora frowned. “No, Kairi came looking for us and convinced us to return,” he said. Were there rumors of police involvement now?

“Relax, I’m just joshing ya,” Tidus said with a laugh.

“I know,” Sora said, even though he hadn’t known.

“But that still don’t explain what you did, yo,” Wakka said. “Exploring is so generic! What about the adventure? Before all this you said you’d be going on adventures!”

“Umm.” Sora thought deeply, trying to make up some adventures that sounded more normal.

“What about that scar ya got, Riku?” Tidus asked, gesturing to his side.

“As I told you earlier, I don’t want to talk about it,” Riku said curtly.

“Aww, come on! We’re friends, aren’t we?”

Riku shifted slightly. “...Yes, but I still don’t want to talk about it.”

“I bet Kairi knows,” Tidus said.

“He got it protecting me,” Sora blurted out, and Riku looked at him with a raised eyebrow, silently asking what the hell he was doing. Saving him from Tidus, that’s what. “Some random guy tried to attack me, and Riku fought him off.”

“Holy shit,” Wakka said as Tidus and Selphie both gasped in surprise.

“Damn,” Tidus said with unbridled awe. “That’s badass.”

“He’s, like, your knight in shining armor,” Selphie said to Sora with a giggle.

“...Something like that,” Sora said, trying not to blush.

Wakka laughed. “Selph! Sora hasn’t been a princess since we was like eight or summat.” That was an allusion to when they were young kids and Sora would sometimes insist on being the princess in their fairy tale games whenever he didn’t feel like fighting, rather than sitting out to take a break; it didn’t feel weird until they’d gotten older and the other kids started teasing him for it, after which he’d stopped.

“Yeah, he’s like a prince now,” Tidus piped in. “At least according to some girls over there—not that I was listening in or anything! Anyway, if you actually weren’t flirting with Selphie and actually aren’t with Kairi, you ought to check them out. Betcha they’d be happy to—”

“No thank you,” Sora quickly cut him off before he could start talking raunchy. “I’m not interested in any of them.”

Tidus frowned in confusion. “But ya didn’t even look at them.” He gestured to the group and looked at them. “They’re all on the cheer team and smoking hot. There’s no way you wouldn’t want a piece of that.”

Sora glanced towards them and shrugged. “Sorry, not interested.”

“What!” Tidus exclaimed. “How the fuck can you not be interested in girls that look like that?”

Wakka was looking at Sora with a dangerously calculating expression. “Sora, are—”

Sora abruptly stood up. “I’m getting another drink. Anyone else want one?”

“I’ll go with you,” Kairi said, hopping up. Riku looked like he wanted to as well, but Sora gave him a quick look that signalled he should stay.

The others gave drink orders and Kairi and Sora headed to the table. A new type of flood followed them, this one looking like a yellow boot with a little grey horned head peeking out. Vani was sitting on Sora’s shoulder.

Sora was breathing slightly heavily by the time they got there, thinking about what had just happened. Had he nearly been outed? Why the hell was Tidus so bent up over who Sora liked? More floods of varying types appeared around him.

“Hey, you okay?” Kairi asked, putting a hand on Sora’s shoulder.

Sora took a deep breath to calm down; some of the floods then actually disappeared. “Yeah, I’m good,” he concluded. “Just, well… Tidus can be…”

“Yeah, I know,” Kairi said. “He never used to be so crass, but, well. He’s on the football team,” she stated, as though that explained it. “They’re all like that. It’s like a cult.”

“A really stupid cult,” Sora said intelligently.

Kairi giggled. “For sure. Now, let’s get those drinks.”

Vani hopped onto the table, scurrying over to the non-alcoholic things and looking like he was trying to stab them with his spindly forelegs as he stared at Sora. Did Vani want something to drink, too? Could he even drink? Well, even if he could, he couldn’t right now with so many people around; it’d look suspicious since no one else could see him. They’d think there was a ghost around or something as the liquid slowly vanished with no explanation. Hopefully Vani understood this; if not, Sora would explain later.

Thankfully the conversation had shifted by the time Sora and Kairi returned with soda cans for Tidus, Wakka, and Riku, and sangrias for the girls. Sora of course had another cup of punch, which he downed nearly a third of in one gulp.

“Careful, that stuff is strong,” Riku reminded Sora quietly, putting a hand on his shoulder.

Sora shrugged. “I’m fine,” he said, letting out a hiccup then blushing in embarrassment.

As the conversation continued, Kairi abandoned her drink, so Sora finished it for her before getting more punch for himself, during which Kairi and Sephie asked him to get them more sangria too. Not only did the punch taste amazing, but Sora liked the warm feeling the rum provided despite the already warm day, and how it made him laugh more and think less. No brooding on the incident, just focusing on enjoying the moment... Sora drank another big sip and swayed slightly. Vani pawed at the cup, probably wanting to drink too. Well, too bad; this was Sora’s drink.

Someone removed the drink from Sora’s hand. “Hey!” Sora protested.

“That’s enough for you,” Riku said sternly.

“Ri-ku!” Sora complained. “Give it back!”

“No. You’re drunk.”

“I’ll finish it!” Kairi said cheerfully, reaching for it.

“No, you’re drunk too,” Riku said with a mix of exasperation and amusement. “Same for you, Selphie,” he said as she reached for it too.

“Yeah, what’s with that, yo?” Wakka asked. “All the girls drunk and guys all sober? That ain’t right, yo.”

“Riku ain’t sober either,” Tidus pointed out.

Riku rolled his eyes. “I’ve had barely anything compared to them.” He took a sip of the punch he’d stolen from Sora, who was pouting with his arms crossed and glaring at Riku. “Sora, don’t be like that,” Riku said with a sigh.

“Give me my drink back, then.”

“No.”

“Fine, I’ll get another one, then.” Sora moved to get up, wobbled a bit, and then Riku grabbed the back of his shirt to pull him back to sitting.

“No. You’re not drinking anymore; you need to sober up before going home. It’s already very late.” Night had fallen more than an hour ago, although the lights around the yard were bright enough that it didn’t matter.

“Yeah, don’t wanna get in trouble with your mom,” Wakka said. “When my dad caught me drinking once, whew, it was not pretty, yo!”

Sora waved a hand. “Pfft. My mom won’t care.”

Riku rolled his eyes. “Seriously, Sora?”

“Uh, yeah, seriously! She’s given us both stuff before!”

“Yeah I know but never hard liquor and never enough to get drunk!”

“Wait wait wait,” Tidus interrupted. “Your mom gives you alcohol?”

Kairi answered. “Just hard cider and wine and stuff on special occasions, nothing like this.”

“Exactly,” Riku said. “Pretty sure she won’t appreciate me returning you drunk!”

“Then I’ll stay at your place,” Sora decided, although in actuality his mom probably wouldn’t be that mad, if at all. She’d say the hangover was a lesson or something.

“My dad’ll be worse,” Riku pointed out.

“Then maybe you shouldn’t be drinking either,” Kairi said, gracefully taking the cup out of Riku’s hand and sipping it.

Riku stared at her. “Kairi, aren’t your parents the worst about this stuff?”

Kairi blushed. Or maybe it was just the alcohol, who knew at this point. “I’m staying here tonight, so they’ll be none the wiser.” She slurred a bit at the end.

Selphie giggled and draped over Kairi’s shoulders, slurring slightly too. “Yes, and we’re going to have quite the fun night.” She fluttered her eyelashes at Kairi and grinned dopily.

Sora flopped into Riku’s side, not having the energy to argue anymore and liking Selphie’s example. “Ri-ku, we’re going to have a fun night too, right?” he looked up coquettishly at his boyfriend, who met his eyes.

Riku was definitely blushing now. “Uh. Sure.” He put his arms around Sora’s shoulders—whether automatic or intentional Sora didn’t know—and Sora leaned in further, closing his eyes and making a sound of contentment.

“Hey, uh Wakka?” Tidus said, turning to the boy, who made a sound of acknowledgement. “Is it just me, or are all our friends gay for each other?”

Wakka raised an eyebrow at Tidus. “You’re just noticing this now?”

  
  


∞♣♥☼♥♣∞

Riku sighed in exasperation, crossing his arms as he glared at Sora. The two, once again, stood near the drink table, alone from everyone else, with Sora attempting to get yet another cup of alcohol-infused punch. “No,” Riku told the brunette firmly. “This is non-negotiable. You can barely stand.” Sora had snuck a few more cups of punch in while Riku had gone back into the pool for a few more rounds of blitzball; Riku cursed himself for not paying closer attention.

Sora crossed his arms and pouted, the motion which caused him to wobble; Riku put his hand on Sora’s upper arm to stabilize him. “Y’re no’ my mom,” Sora slurred petulantly. No shit. Sora’s mom would probably encourage it.

“No, I’m not. I’m your boyfriend, and I’m worried about you. You’re going to get sick,” Riku said, trying to keep his voice even. Getting into an emotional argument would not be advisable at the moment—not that Sora was likely to remember it.

“Nah, I feel g’d, no’ sick!” Sora argued. “I c’n handle m’re.”

“No,” Riku said again. “At this rate you’ll end up in the hospital. Please, Sora, listen to me!”

“Why d’you ev’n care?” Sora muttered under his breath.

“What? Why would I not care? I love you, you know that,” Riku said, Sora’s words only serving to make him more concerned. Riku knew Sora hadn’t been feeling so great—who would, after what he’d been through?—but could it be bad enough that Sora was thinking such dark thoughts? Or was it just because he was drunk?

“L’ve ya too,” Sora slurred, losing his balance and stumbling into Riku’s arms. Riku noticed some other kids approaching the drink table, some snickering; hopefully not at them. Even so...

“Come on, we should probably get home,” Riku recommended. “The party is dying down anyway. Let’s find Kairi and Selphie to let them know we’re leaving.”

“Yeah, no’ a g’d idea,” Sora said. “P’ty sure they’re messin’ aroun’ inside.”

“Messing around…? Oh.” So then, they wouldn’t be saying goodbye to them, Riku concluded. Not unless they wanted to walk in on something… which probably shouldn’t be happening with the two so drunk, but that was their prerogative.

“R’ku, let’s mess aroun’ too,” Sora said, leaning heavily into Riku now, chests pressed together.

“No,” Riku said firmly. “Not tonight.”

Sora frowned. “Bu’ R’ku, don’ you l’ve me?”

“Yes, of course I love you. But you’re completely drunk, and I’ve been drinking too. So, no. We’re not doing anything but going home and sleeping.”

“T’gether?”

“Yes, but literally, not the euphemism.”

Sora sighed. “Y’re no f’n…”

Riku looked upwards, praying Sora would drop this. “Sora, we can do things when we’re both sober, but not after drinking, okay?”

“Bu’ I wanna fu’ you…”

Riku closed his eyes, his libido reacting. But, no. “We are not doing that for the first time when drunk,” he insisted.

“Booooo….” Sora whined. “Suck m’ dick th’n?” Sora asked with a look of hope. Riku made a frustrated grumble, willing himself not to react to the mention of that, which was yet another thing they had not done yet. Why was Sora insisting upon moving so fast? Riku loved Sora, definitely, but he still didn’t want to rush things.

“Sora. My decision is final,” Riku said decisively, staring the brunette in the eyes. “Please stop trying to convince me otherwise. Nothing. Is. Happening. Tonight.”

“N’t ev’n a kiss?”

Riku glanced around; people were definitely watching them now. “Fine, but later, okay? When we’re away from here.”

Sora made a sound of disgruntlement. “Fine. Le’s go then.”

Riku nodded in agreement. “Okay.” He moved away from Sora… who followed him, nearly falling to the ground as he continued trying to lean against Riku. Riku caught him.

“I don’ thin’ I can wal’,” Sora said. “No’ withou’ my R’ku…”

Riku felt a wave of affection at Sora calling him ‘his’ Riku. Although… Riku wasn’t sure that he could walk Sora home, feeling slightly tipsy himself and with Sora hanging off him. He could try carrying Sora, but it was a pretty long walk… “I’m going to call your mom to pick us up,” Riku decided.

“Wha’! No, don’ do tha’!” Sora protested. He looked like he wanted to yell but couldn’t muster the effort to in his state.

Riku shook his head. “Sorry. She’ll be mad whether we walk home or get a ride; there’s no way we can sneak into the house like this.” Plus it was a safety concern, and there was a good chance they’d get escorted home in a police car if they tried walking.

Sora pouted slightly, but mumbled what sounded like “whatever”.


	11. Chapter 11

Sora woke up in his bed, mid-morning by the angle of the too-bright sunlight. The flood—Vani—was next to him, appearing to be asleep, but no one else. Where was Riku? Shouldn’t Riku be there?

“Good morning, sleepyhead,” someone said, and Sora turned in relief to see Riku entering the room with a glass of water and something in his hand. He sat down on the edge of the bed and handed the water to Sora, who took a few gulps—he was really thirsty!—then Riku handed Sora what was in his hand.

“Pills?” Sora asked, confused.

“For the headache,” Riku explained.

“Headache? I don’ gotta headache,” Sora said, speech coming out slightly mumbled and slurred; his brain was fuzzy. He felt pretty good, though; he tried getting out of bed, but it was more difficult than expected, and he wobbled when getting up; he tried to take a few steps but stumbled. Maybe Sora didn’t have a headache, but he sure was dizzy!

“Whoa!” Riku caught Sora and helped him sit back on the bed. Riku frowned, then looked at Sora closely. “Are you still drunk?”

“Drunk?” Sora asked. “Uh… I dunno.”

“How many drinks did you have?”

Sora shrugged, unsure. 

“Sora,” Riku said flatly.

“I really don’ kno’!” Sora said, slightly agitated. “I don’ rem’mber las’ night tha’ well. Does it matter?”

“Yes it matters!” Riku said, voice loud. “If you had enough to still be noticeably drunk now, that means you were in danger! You passed out in the car; what if you didn’t wake up!?” He looked upset; Sora wasn’t sure if it was directed at Sora or himself. “I should have kept better track,” he said quieter, looking like he might cry, “or cut you off sooner or something…”

“Huh? ‘S not your responsibility,” Sora said. He turned to the flood, who looked irritated too. Sora vaguely recalled that he got annoyed when Sora had gotten more drinks. “Not yours either,” Sora told him.

“Sora?” Riku asked, confused and… wary? “Who are you talking to?”

Sora shook his head and turned to Riku, realizing what he’d done. “No one! Why would I be talkin’ to someone else? ’S no one else here. ‘M jus’ talkin’ to you.”

Riku bit his lip, looking contemplative. “If you say so,” he finally said.

“Hey, ‘ow’d I get ‘ome?” Sora wondered. “I don’ remember that.”

“Let’s just say you’re really, really, really lucky to have such a chill and understanding mom,” Riku said flatly. 

“Huh?”

“She picked us up without question, and promised not to tell any of the other parents about the party,” he explained. “She also said you won’t be grounded, as the inevitable massive hangover ought to be enough to teach you not to drink that much again.”

“Not tha’ much?” Sora caught. “Not none?”

Riku shrugged. “That’s what she said.”

Sora frowned. “Huh. I didn’ thin’ she was quite that chill,” he said. “Least, she wasn’ b’fore we got back.” She’d given him drinks before, sure, but she had drawn a line. Was there really none now?

Riku shrugged. “I think that might be part of why she’s being so lax, honestly.” He didn’t elaborate further. Come to think of it, Riku’s dad had become more lax, too, although Kairi’s had gotten stricter upon her return. Well, everyone reacted differently to things, Sora supposed. 

Sora tried to stand again, but Riku just pulled him back down. “You’re going back to sleep until you’re more sober,” he insisted.

“Bu’ I’m not tired…” Sora argued, though he allowed Riku to guide him to a lying position. 

Riku sighed and put his hand over Sora’s forehead. “Sleep,” he whispered, and Sora felt magic flow into him.

“Hey, no fair,” Sora mumbled, as he yawned and drifted off to slumber.

  
  


∞♣♥☼♥♣∞

Sora stood on a stained glass circle featuring an image of himself, surrounded by smaller circles with Riku, Kairi, Donald, and Goofy. Interestingly, Riku’s had grown slightly bigger and the others slightly smaller.

_ Yeah, these heart station things reflect the most influential people to you. Stands to reason your boyfriend would be larger than the others. _

Sora swerved around. “Who said that?” he asked, seeing no one. Wait… not no one. In the shadows at the edge was a small creature…

“Vani!” Sora called, hopping over to the flood as he walked into the light towards him. So that’s who had been talking to him when on the edge of sleep! Sora stopped short, remembering that Vani tended to dislike being touched.

_ Ugh. Do you have to give everything a ‘cute’ nickname? _

“...Yes,” Sora replied teasingly.

Right in front of the eyes, the flood shifted into a more human form, covered in armor scarily similar to the dark one Riku had worn back when possessed, although unlike that outfit this one included a helmet.

Sora yelped in surprise.

Vani scoffed. “What, now that I look all dark and badass you’re afraid of me? Newsflash: floods are made of darkness.”

“What? No, I’m not afraid,” Sora protested. “Just surprised, is all! And what do you mean, made of darkness?”

“Seriously? You seriously couldn’t tell? Little black shadowy thing that resembles a heartless, and you don’t connect that to darkness?”

“Okay, guess you have a point… but, either way, darkness isn’t all bad,” Sora reasoned. “Nothing to be afraid of.”

Vani was quiet for a moment before he spoke in a mocking manner, “Heh. I should have known YOU would think that, Sora. Well, I happen to agree: darkness is WONDERFUL.”

Sora blinked. “Um. I wouldn’t go that far.”

“Hmm. I wonder.”

“Hey,” Sora said, changing the subject. He was curious about something. “What exactly are floods? They’re not heartless; the symbol is weird. Are they some sort of variation?”

Vani tilted his head, possibly in slight confusion. “Huh? Floods don’t have—Oh.” Vani laughed; it sounded slightly disturbing. “They’re not all called floods! That’s just the basic shadow-like ones. They’re called ‘unversed’,” Vani explained, sounding more bored by the end. Sora imagined he’d be rolling his eyes under that mask. “They’re formed from the darkness created from negative emotions.”

“Huh,” Sora acknowledged with a nod. He actually had figured that emotion bit out already. Sora switched to another question that flickered across his curious mind. “What do you look like under the mask?”

Vani tilted his head, thinking for a moment. “You,” he said eventually, retracting the mask. Indeed, he looked exactly like Sora, except that his hair was black instead of brown and his eyes were golden instead of blue. His skin was paler, too, although Sora wasn’t sure if that was just because he got much less sun than Sora or if the natural skin tone actually was lighter. 

Sora blinked in surprise, then frowned. “So, what, do you represent my darkness or something?”

Vani laughed, then paused. “Well, I’m stuck here anyway, might as well explain. I am someone’s darkness, just not yours… the kid took refuge in your heart and I got dragged along.”

Sora scrunched his brow. “Refuge in my heart? What, Roxas?”

“Hah! No, not that fool. He’s sleeping right now. So is Ventus—he’s my other half, formed when our heart was split in two. He’s light, I’m dark… Long story short, we fought, his heart shattered, and it found yours when you were just a little kid. I thought I was a complete gonner, though; imagine my surprise when I woke up! Took me FOREVER to manifest a proper form, though… although, the others still haven’t been able to do anything but watch from their own little heart stations. I’ll take that as a win; proof I’m superior!”

Sora ignored Vani’s burst of ego and instead frowned, thinking of what Vani had said prior. “Why did you and Ventus fight?” Sora asked.

Vanitas waved a hand in dismissal. “That’s irrelevant.”

“Okay…” Sora decided to drop that line of questioning, sensing that wouldn’t get answered right now. “So, back to your looks. Why would you look like me?”

Vani sighed. “Trust me, if I had a choice, I wouldn’t. But Ven got the body… so, I got the looks of the kid Ven’s heart reached for—you.”

“Um. Not sure if I understand, but okay… hey, wait! You mentioned Roxas is in here? He didn’t vanish?” Sora looked around but saw no one else.

Vani rolled his eyes. “Yes, he’s here. So is Ventus and some chick—don’t ask me who she is, I have no idea, she’s asleep too. Ugh.”

“So… if you all exist in my heart, can we make you exist outside instead?” Sora wondered.

Vani shrugged. “Beats me. We don’t exactly have bodies to go to. I don’t even know how I’m even able to manifest as the flood, to be honest. Kinda just got really upset seeing those kids attack you, and then bam, there I was. Not like I could do anything about it though,” he said bitterly. “If I ever get an actual physical form, I’m gonna kill those bastards.”

“Whoa whoa whoa!” Sora said, waving his arms. “No, Vani, we are not killing anyone!”

Vani scoffed. “Says you.”

Sora frowned. “Why would you, anyway?”

“Because they hurt you,” Vani said simply, as though it were obvious.

“But aren’t you not here by choice? So why would you care?”

Vani shrugged. “By all rights I shouldn’t, considering I’m pure darkness. Never cared about anyone before. Guess you just have that effect on people.” He seemed unhappy about that.

Sora beamed. “That’s awesome!” Sora jumped forwards to hug Vani, though stopped when the noirette stepped back. “Oh, sorry. Forgot you dislike hugs… why is that, anyway? Hugs are nice.”

Vani raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms. “What are you on about? YOU dislike them too.”

Sora scrunched his brow in confusion. “What? That’s not true. I hug people all the time.”

“No, you hug a select few people all the time, and shy away from everyone else.”

“Huh? I do?”

“Yup,” Vani confirmed, popping the ‘p’. Been watching you for a few years now. You hug Riku, your mom, Riku’s dad, the duck, and the dog, the last two only because they kept forcing it until you got used to it. You’re awkward around everyone else—including Kairi. If you have to do a hug, it’s always a half one.”

“What? No, I—” Sora cut himself off, again remembering the reunion in The World That Never Was. Kairi had fully hugged Sora, and he froze before awkwardly returning it. He had no qualms about Riku, though, hugging him multiple times immediately after that… after every battle, actually, come to think of it. But with other people? Sora would shift away instinctually, and flinch if they did try to hug. “I guess that is true,” he said in wonder. Then he frowned. “But if that’s true, why did I want to hug you?”

Vani shrugged. “Beats me…” Then he frowned. “Wait. No, I get it. It’s because you’ve started to view me as a freaking pet.”

“What! No I haven’t!” Sora protested… er. Actually, thinking again, maybe that had been true.

“...You tried to pet me multiple times in flood form, and tried to cuddle me in your sleep a couple times.”

“Okay, fine, you have a point… but you looked like a cute little animal! Now that I know you’re a human, I won’t do that.”

“Hmph. Not sure how much I believe that, but—hey, wait. Did you just call a flood a ‘cute little animal’? What the hell? They look like spiky heartless!”

“I guess… hey, you speak as though there’s lots of them, but I’ve never seen any until recently,” Sora commented. “Why do you take that form? You called them ‘unversed’, right? Are they a new type of heartless? What—”

“Like I said before, they’re manifestations of negative emotions,” Vani interrupted. “They’re not heartless. I create them when I strongly feel things.”

“Oh.” Sora felt bad about that. “That’s really sad…”

Vani narrowed his eyes. “Don’t you feel sorry for me!” he snapped. “It is what it is. I’m pure darkness and negativity. Always have been and always will be.”

This confused Sora. “But you’ve been protecting me, or at least trying to. That’s not really negative…”

“It's not for you, it’s for self-preservation. If you die, I die, and Ven dies, and those others do. Not that I care about them,” he added quickly.

“Hmmm. I don’t think that’s all it is, but if you say so!” Sora said cheerfully.

“Well, I do say so! It’s definitely not about you!”

“Okay, okay!” Sora said, trying not to laugh. Sora let that subject drop, though very much suspected that Vani, despite insisting he was pure darkness and negativity, actually did care. He never said to stop using the nickname, after all. Now, another subject... “So, those unversed hallucinations. You created them?”

Vani’s face reddened, though Sora wasn’t sure if that was from embarrassment or anger. “No, actually, I didn’t make those stupid things, that’s all your messed-up traumatized brain! Which is weird, because when I had a body I was the only one who could make them—I did think it was me at first but nope, they’re all you. That’s supposed to be my thing!” Okay, yeah, that was anger, and probably—no, definitely—jealousy too.

“Huh.” Sora was quiet for a bit, thinking about all that had just happened while giving Vani a moment to calm down. So much information! If he asked any more, he’d forget it. But would he forget it anyway? This was basically a dream-place, right? Would he remember this all?

“What are you thinking?” Vani asked after a while, emotions back under control.

“Huh?” Sora snapped out of his thoughts. “Oh. Just random stuff.”

“You do that a lot,” Vani pointed out. “You shouldn’t drift off like that, especially in class.”

“Yeah… can’t help it though,” Sora said. He tried really hard to focus in class, but it was incredibly difficult to! Sora didn’t understand how people managed it; did they know some sort of secret to it that Sora didn’t? He should ask Riku. Sora then realized something. “Wait. If you’re supposedly all darkness, why do you care about what I do in class?”

“I don’t,” Vani huffed, then paused for a moment. “Wait. I almost completely forgot why I wanted to talk to you in the first place.”

“You wanted to talk to me?”

“Well, duh!” Vani said with an eye roll. “Why else would I bring you here? Anyway, before we get off-track again: don’t drink yourself to near-death again.”

Sora frowned. “I wasn’t—”

“Yes you were. Be glad Riku cut you off. That stuff was hella strong; any more, and you’d be in the hospital right now. Do not. Do. That. Again. We clear?” Vani sounded angry, though with a possible layer of worry and true concern underneath. He’d undoubtedly just claim it was for self-preservation though.

Sora gulped and nodded, Vani’s seriousness nearly palpable. “Clear.”

“Good. Now go wake up, Riku’s getting worried.”

Sora frowned. “Riku used a sleep spell!”

“Which wore off hours ago. He’s starting to worry he messed it up. Now, GO.”

Suddenly, Sora flew upwards, flung out of the heart station as though shot from a cannon. He opened his eyes with a gasp; he was lying in his bed, and Riku had his hands clasped to one of his.

“Oh thank the gods,” Sora heard Riku whisper as he squeezed Sora’s hand. “I am so so sorry, Sora, I didn’t think the spell was that strong I—”

“Shhh,” Sora whispered, putting a finger on Riku’s lips. It looked like the silverette had been crying. “I’m fine, no need to apologize.” Then in a more normal voice Sora asked, “What time is it anyway?”

“Nearly 3pm,” Riku informed him, letting go of Sora’s hand to wipe the tears from his eyes, which Sora decided not to mention. Riku asked, “So, do you feel better?”

“Uh…” Sora was suddenly aware of his head throbbing. “No,” he said, putting a hand on his head. “Headache.”

Riku chuckled. “Well, you’re not drunk anymore, then.” He handed Sora a couple of pills and the glass of water that was on the nightstand, which Sora quickly downed. Seemed cure magic couldn’t cure hangovers, otherwise Sora was sure Riku would have used it. “Now, come on, let’s head to the kitchen,” Riku suggested. “Your mom made ample amounts of coffee.”

“Coffee?” Sora scrunched his nose. Coffee was nasty.

“Yup. Helps with hangovers, supposedly. We can put lots of milk and sugar in yours, okay?” Riku pulled on Sora’s hand, helping him off the bed.

“Okay,” Sora agreed, closing his eyes briefly as Riku led him by the hand. “Also, sunglasses would be nice too.”


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now, things take a sharp turn away from fluff.

Sora stared absentmindedly out the window of the classroom, tapping his pencil on the paper. He vaguely noted Vani pawing at him, not that he could feel it or anything so it was useless to catch his attention that way. Sora gazed at the clouds going by, imagining them as different figures. A cat… a house… a neoshadow… a muffin… a sheep… Vani jumped in front of Sora, trying to catch Sora’s attention to warn him of something, but failed.

THUMP.

Sora jerked out of his daydreaming and spun around to find the biology teacher leaning over the desk, right in front of him, ruler in his hand. “If you’d rather distract the class by tapping your pencil than work on your test, you can leave and get a zero instead,” he said coldly.

“What? No, sorry, I didn’t mean to!” Sora exclaimed, noting the class watching.

“Yeah? Well, it better not happen again, or that’s what’s going to happen! You’re on thin ice, young man.” The teacher stood up. “Now get back to work.” He turned around and glanced around the room. “That means all of you!” he snapped before briskly striding to the front of the room to sit at his desk observing them. Talk about a bad mood.

Sora looked down at his test, having trouble focusing. He was very tired, as he had had trouble sleeping the previous night; nightmares often came when Riku wasn’t there with him, and as it was a school night his dad wanted Riku home. Maybe Sora was still slightly hungover; could it last that long? Maybe Riku would know; he’d ask in their class later… oh wait, he had a test to work on. Thankfully the test was mostly multiple-choice; maybe he could still get a good grade via luck.

Or, with Vanitas’s help? The flood was tapping the letter ‘B’ on the question Sora was stuck on, ‘What is the part of a flower that produces pollen’. Huh. ‘Stamen’ did sound like the right answer. Well, guess Sora would find out once it was graded. He circled the answer… wait, was that considered cheating? Sora decided he didn’t care. Not like he’d need to know this information ever.

Sora finished his test—with help from Vanitas—barely a minute before the bell rang. Sora tossed his test on the pile on the desk, then hurried out the door. 

Sora reached his locker, then stared at it for a moment before opening it. Someone had written “FAG” across the light-blue locker with a red sharpie. There were a few other things written too, smaller but just as nasty, in different colors and handwriting. Sora sighed; he really should have expected it. The bullies did have other friends, many of whom had laughed at the various jokes the boys had thrown around in gym class; the ones who only got house arrest probably told them all about it over the weekend. It was too much to hope that those seven were the only homophobic bullies in the school. Now that everyone knew, things like this were sure to happen more often. Different students would take up the gauntlet left by those that were expelled or sent to juvie, and then be again joined by the ones only receiving suspensions, forming a new gang to target him, this time more intensely as retaliation for their friends getting in trouble. It would never end.

Sora wished he’d never returned home. He had missed his mom, sure, and of course he wanted to be with Riku and Kairi, but if everything else was just going to be pain… Sora debated leaving school right then and just not returning. Run away somewhere far away. Everyone thought he’d done so last time, after all, so maybe they’d just assume he’d done so again and not look for him. Oh, but Riku and Kairi would look. He should at least wait until after his class with them, so he’d have a head start.

But, what if they did find Sora, and bring him back here? Ugh. Maybe he should have drank more the other night, if he really had been that close to—whoa, what? Where had that thought come from? Sora didn’t want to take things that far! ...Did he?

More unversed than usual watched Sora from the shadows on his way to cooking class, as expected with the mood Sora was in; Sora ignored them.

Sora slipped into his stool at the culinary station, Kairi and Riku greeting him happily. Sora could only manage an unenthusiastic “Hey” before resting his arms on the counter and putting his head in them. It was too warm in the classroom.

“Sora, you okay?” Riku whispered, sounding highly worried.

“Just tired,” Sora said truthfully. Mentally and physically. He was a little lightheaded too, come to think of it. “Think I’m still a bit hungover.”

“Ugh, I feel you,” Kairi groaned, and Sora noticed there were bags under her eyes. “My sleep was so restless last night! I’m never drinking that much ever again.”

“Agreed,” Sora said. He sat back up and pulled the sheet with instructions over. They’d be making three different types of tomato sauce today; Sora was not thrilled about that. He preferred things like cookies, which they could actually eat. No one wanted to eat just a pot of pasta sauce, unless they were starving. Actually… When was the last time Sora ate? He hadn’t been eating much lately—he just wasn’t hungry. Should he be concerned about that? Did he even care? ...What would happen if he stopped? How many days could someone go without—whoa. Why was he thinking about that? Sora mentally shook himself out of that dangerous line of thinking. 

“Hey, you should probably take the sweatshirt off,” Kairi suggested after a while. The room was incredibly warm, in part due to the instructions having everyone using cast-iron pans for one of the sauces. If the room had air conditioning it wouldn’t be an issue, but it didn’t, and it was a hot day on top of it… Sora wiped a bead of sweat off his forehead with his sweatshirt’s sleeve. Kairi was right; he probably should take it off so he didn’t overheat. Vani seemed to have the same idea if Sora was reading his frantic gestures right… Yeah, he probably should remove it, but…

Still, Sora kept the sweatshirt on. He began getting slightly dizzy as he stirred the sauce over the stove, but still pressed on. Sora went to get some more thyme from the cabinet. His vision swam slightly as he looked at all the spices, but eventually he found it, although it took him much longer than usual and Sora shook slightly as he reached up to grab it, stretching onto his tiptoes; why’d he have to be so short? Breathing was a slight struggle, too… as he walked back to their station he began feeling extremely lightheaded, and the room started to spin. Sora closed his eyes in an attempt to assuage the dizziness. There was a small crash as the glass spice jar shattered on the ground, and someone shouted his name…

  
  


∞♣♥☼♥♣∞

“Sora!” Riku called in panic, leaping out of his seat as the brunette tumbled to the ground. Riku immediately was on his knees at Sora’s side, Kairi quickly following.

Students gathered around; Riku shook Sora’s shoulder slightly, seeing if he’d wake, but the brunette was out cold. He could tell Sora was still breathing, at least, although it was labored. Riku felt Sora’s forehead; it felt like a furnace, and his face was flush. Shit. Riku had noticed Sora didn’t seem well, but hadn’t realized it was this bad!

“I’ll call the nurse,” the teacher said, rushing to the phone.

“I can bring him there,” Riku said, trying to stay calm as he easily picked Sora up, cradling him in his arms. 

Riku rushed out the door—which was already open due to the heat—while the teacher notified the nurse he was on the way. Riku tried not to panic as he ran; why did the nurse have to be on the entire opposite end of the school? And why did the school have to be so big? Well, okay, it wasn’t that big, but it felt like it as Riku raced there, putting a bit of magic in his step to gain some extra speed as he ran, not caring if anyone saw and questioned it. Thankfully it was at a time when no one was in the hallway. Riku couldn’t help but notice how light Sora felt; had he lost even more weight? He’d always been thin; maybe Riku’s strength from years of fighting had just made him feel lighter. Still. He looked down at Sora, whose sweatshirt appeared too big—a sweatshirt Riku was pretty sure had been from before they left the Islands, meaning it should fit more snugly. How had he not noticed it before now? Had Sora not been eating? He ate when Riku was there to give him things, but he had no way of knowing what Sora ate otherwise… and would he even have eaten if Riku hadn’t insisted those times? Fuck.

Riku skidded to a halt outside the nurse’s office; the nurse had opened the door and was waiting for them. She instructed Riku to put him on the bed.

“He just fainted in cooking class, I don’t know why—”

“Cooking class?” The nurse sighed. “Get his sweatshirt off, I’ll grab an ice pack,” she instructed. As she did Riku heard her mutter under her breath, “Every year, yet they still don’t get an air conditioner!”

Air conditioner? Oh. Duh. Riku rushed to remove Sora’s sweatshirt, again noting how scarily thin he seemed. Why was he wearing that on such a warm day, anyway? And in such a warm class? Riku turned to the air conditioner that was near the bed—this was one of the only rooms that had one, simply because legally they had to. It was on, but low; Riku turned it on full blast.

“Oh, good, that was the next thing I was going to do,” the nurse said, hurrying over with an ice pack to place on Sora’s forehead. 

“Will he be okay?” Riku asked, voice cracking; he realized tears had started to fall. Riku hurriedly wiped his eyes.

“Yes, he ought to be,” the nurse said genially. “Now, you should go back to class—”

“Can I stay here until he wakes?” Riku interrupted to ask. “Please?”

The nurse frowned in thought for a moment, then smiled gently. “Of course,” she said, grabbing a chair and placing it next to the bed for Riku.

Riku, once sitting, took Sora’s hand in his, pressing his forehead to it. “Please be okay,” he whispered. “Please.”

“Don’t worry,” the nurse said kindly. “He overheated, that’s all. There’s always a few each year, either in that or gym, although the latter’s usually outside so not much can be done. Yet they can prevent it in the cooking class! I tell the school every year that it’s dangerous to cook in such heat, yet they still refuse to put air conditioning in!” she shook her head in exasperation. “The school board just won’t allocate the funding for it. Really it should be in every classroom, especially in this climate… but no, they’ll probably just wait until someone ends up in a hospital and a lawsuit is filed that’ll cost them more than it would have to put the air conditioners in… oh, I apologize for rambling like that.”

Riku shook his head. “No need to apologize. Being passionate about student safety is a good thing… oh before I forget, can I talk to you about something else?” Riku asked, a little nervous. “It’s about Sora.”

“Of course. Is he not feeling well otherwise?”

“I don’t know,” Riku admitted. “He’s lost a lot of weight… I don’t think he’s been eating properly, if at all.”

The nurse looked at Sora worriedly. “Yes, he is awfully thin. Is he refusing to eat, or just not hungry?” she asked.

“I’m not sure. He does eat if I give him something, and when he stays for dinner at my place, or when I eat dinner there. Only, he’s not as enthusiastic about it as he used to be, and often doesn’t finish it…” Riku realized. “I mean, as a kid he’d skip meals sometimes, as he’d get distracted and lose track of time, but not enough to lose weight because of it…” Riku felt tears start to form again. “I’m really worried,” he said in barely a whisper.

The nurse frowned. “How’s the rest of his attitude? Has he been less enthusiastic about things in general?”

Riku thought about that. “I’m not sure,” he concluded. “Maybe. He hasn’t been that interested in hanging out with other people since returning, except for me and Kairi. But, Kairi says he acts differently around me even compared to her, so I might just not have noticed… oh, he does seem extra tired lately too, although that’s probably because he doesn’t generally sleep well due to nightmares.”

The nurse nodded. “I would recommend he see one of the school counselors. They would have a better idea what to do, but it’s possible he may need to see a psychiatrist.”

“A psychiatrist?” Riku echoed, surprised. “Why?” 

“Well, bullying can take a toll on people,” the nurse explained. “Especially when it involves such a traumatic event…”

“Wait. Should you really be telling me this?” Riku realized. 

“Well, normally I would discuss this with a parent,” the nurse admitted. “But from my understanding, you’ve been taking care of him for a while, correct? And his mom… she’s a very nice woman, but… oh, I shouldn’t gossip.”

“No, I get what you mean,” Riku said. Sora’s mom wasn’t as responsible as most parents; it wasn’t really a secret. She tried her best, but the combination of her attempts at being the ‘fun mom’, age—she had been a teenager herself when he was born—and absentmindedness (which Sora had definitely inherited) had caused Riku’s family to be more or less both Sora’s and his mother’s caregiver when Sora was little (Riku suspected his dad, who was older than most parents of kids Riku’s age, actually saw Sora’s mom as akin to a daughter). As Sora got older he learned to help her out, and his mom learned strategies to help her keep things at least semi-organized, so now between the two of them they more or less managed fine although Riku and his dad still helped as much as they could. Sora’s mom also expected Sora to be more or less independent, and Sora never liked to feel like a burden to people, so if he wasn’t feeling well mentally it was possible he would hide it... No, it was definite he would hide it. Sora was stubborn in that way. And if his mom noticed something… well, she’d probably ask Sora what he thought about it, and wouldn’t press if he said he was fine, assuming he was being truthful. She could be much too optimistic.

Yes, it’d definitely be up to Riku and his dad to convince Sora to see someone, or at the very least get him to open up about what was happening—because Riku was starting to suspect that Sora was seeing things too. Riku blinked a few times; tears had begun to form once again; why was he crying so much? It was unlike him… well, maybe not. He had cried a lot watching Sora in the pod, too. Riku couldn’t help but get emotional when he was worried about Sora.

“Hey,” someone said, entering the room. Riku quickly wiped the tears from his eyes and turned to see Kairi, carrying their school bags. “I would have followed right away, but the teacher wanted me to clean up the station before it accidentally set the fire alarm off—the sauce started to burn. He gave us full marks anyway.”

Riku nodded, barely processing that. School grades didn’t feel very important when his boyfriend was lying unconscious in the nurse’s office.

  
  


∞♣♥☼♥♣∞

Sora woke up to bright light. He blinked it away and tried to assess where he was. The nurse’s office? His sweatshirt was off, and it felt like an ice pack was on his head. Sora moved to remove it; it was pretty chilly in the room with the air conditioner on full blast.

“Don’t,” someone said, lightly putting a hand on Sora’s arm. Sora turned slightly to see Riku sitting on a chair beside him.

“What happened?” Sora asked weakly. He still felt lightheaded.

“You passed out in class,” Riku explained. “From the heat, the nurse said. Why did you keep the sweatshirt on? Surely you could feel how bad it was getting!” It sounded like Riku was trying to keep his voice level and calm. Sora examined his boyfriend’s face. Were those tear tracks? Aww, crap. Sora had made Riku cry again! He was such a mess; why did Riku even want to stay with him?

“I don’t know,” Sora said, looking away, feeling shameful. “I didn’t think it was getting that bad… I’m sorry.”

“Why are you apologizing?” Riku asked. “You’re the one who’s injured.”

“I made you cry,” Sora said, reaching up to brush a hand under the silverette’s eye, causing Riku to slightly brush.

“Hey,” Kairi interrupted. Sora gave a start, then blushed; he hadn’t realized they weren’t alone. She asked, “why would you be wearing a sweatshirt today anyway?”

Sora frowned and gestured to his arms, which were still covered in bluish-green bruises. It’d only been four days since the incident, after all, even if it felt like much longer. Considering how deep some of the bruises had been, they were healing quicker than expected. Sora wondered how much that had to do with the fact that he was used to getting bruises from all the fighting, even though cure magic usually fixed them.

“Right. But what happened to the cover-up? You could have used that instead.”

Sora shrugged. “I lost it.” As should have been expected; Sora was always misplacing things.

Kairi sighed. “Sora…”

“Sorry.”

“Hey, stop apologizing for everything!” Riku chided.

Vani, perched on Riku’s head unbeknownst to the silverette, nodded in agreement.

“Oh good, you’re awake!” The nurse said, hurrying over, then looked at Riku and Kairi. “Dears, you really ought to get back to class now. Sora will be fine, I promise.”

“It’s our lunch break,” Riku quickly explained. “It’s okay if we stay in that case, right?”

“Very well. But be sure to go to class when it’s over,” the nurse agreed. 

“How long was I out?” Sora asked. Not very, he figured, as Riku and Kairi had lunch right after the cooking class, which had nearly been over.

“Oh, not even twenty minutes,” the nurse explained, removing the ice pack and handing him a water bottle. “Here, drink. You need to rehydrate. I’ve already called your mom, she should be here soon.”

“I’m going home?” Sora asked, confused, as Riku helped him sit up.

“You fainted in class, dear,” the nurse said.

“Well, yeah, but I’m feeling better now. I don’t want to miss class again,” Sora lied. He was not feeling better and he definitely wanted to miss class, but he didn’t want to go home. Sora didn’t want his mom worrying about him. He’d already made Riku and Kairi worry.

Riku frowned. “You have gym class now. They’re running the track today; there’s no way you’re doing that right after having a heatstroke.” Riku tapped the water bottle; Vani did too, now sitting on the bed next to Sora, although Riku couldn’t see that. “Drink,” Riku reminded Sora, and Sora complied. He drank deeply; he hadn’t realized how thirsty he was.

The nurse proceeded to check Sora over via sticking a thermometer in his mouth, taking his pulse, and other such things. Once everything checked out okay, she told him to rest some more, then asked him if he wanted a snack, as it was approaching lunch time; she had boxes of fruit snacks, juice boxes, and granola bars for students who needed them. Sora declined; he wasn’t very hungry.

The nurse frowned. “Sora, when was the last time you ate?” she asked.

“Huh? This morning, I think,” Sora replied, slightly confused at why the nurse would be asking him that. Kairi looked like she was wondering why too, but Riku seemed to have expected it. Had Riku talked to the nurse about Sora? Had Sora worried him that much?

“This morning you were running late and left without breakfast,” Riku pointed out. Right, Riku had woken him when he came to pick Sora up only to find he’d slept through the alarm. Sora had barely had time to get dressed and brush his teeth, let alone eat, and there hadn't been fruits around to grab to eat while walking… 

“Then, sometime yesterday, I dunno,” Sora mumbled, looking away, trying to think; things were a little hazy. Did he eat, come to think of it? He drank coffee. He’d been nauseous otherwise though, due to the hangover… “Or, maybe the day before?” he ventured. Probably. He often forgot, getting distracted by one thing or another… in the past he’d always been reminded by his stomach telling him to eat whenever he forgot more than one meal, but his food schedules had been so wonky during their travels between all the time zone changes and stuff that his stomach stopped telling him when he was hungry, used to going a while without only to eat a whole lot the next time. At least, that’s what he assumed was the issue… or was it something else? He’d still wanted to eat when presented food back then. Now it was just unappealing. Most things were unappealing lately, come to think about it. Sora just didn’t have the same energy he used to have...

The nurse then asked gently, “Sora, honey, why wouldn’t you eat? Do you have food at home?”

“Huh? Of course. Yesterday I was just really hungo—I mean, nauseous, so I didn’t eat. Stomach bug or something...” He put a hand on his head. “Ugh. I still feel dizzy,” he complained.

The nurse pursed her lips briefly, then sighed as she grabbed a juice box and put the straw in before handing it to Sora. “Drink this immediately.” 

“Juice?” Sora looked at it, confused. How could that help?

“It’ll help replenish your blood sugar, which must be extremely low if you haven’t eaten anything for so long, especially after drinking alcohol—yes, don’t think I didn’t catch what you were about to say,” she added upon noting Sora’s shocked expression before continuing to explain. “The symptoms of low blood sugar are similar to heatstroke; you probably fainted due to a combination of the two.”

“Oh,” Sora said listlessly in reply, then began to sip on the juice. When he finished, he was given a granola bar and fruit snacks to eat, which he did. 

“Feeling better?” Riku asked once Sora was done. 

Sora thought for a moment. “Yeah, a little. Not as dizzy.” He didn’t bother putting on a charade of happiness.

“Good,” said the nurse. “Sora, you make sure to eat a good meal when you get home, now! And please do not wear excessive clothing in a room that’s over eighty degrees fahrenheit. I don’t want you fainting in class again due to either! You need to take care of yourself. I don’t want you becoming a repeat customer.”

“I know,” Sora mumbled, looking down at his lap, somewhat wishing he hadn’t woken up. He was such a burden to them all… 


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just want to take a moment to thank all you wonderful people who have been leaving comments! It always makes me very happy to see them, even though I don't reply to them all. Thank you so much. <3
> 
> Kudos, too! It makes me so happy to see that so many people read and enjoy my writing, and encourages me to keep it up. When I first started writing, I never expected so many people to like my stuff (or any, really; I still can barely believe it), so again, thank you so much! <3

“Ugh. I can’t believe your mom gave us ALL that lecture,” Kairi lamented as they left Sora’s house later that same day.

Kairi and Riku, as expected, had headed straight to Sora’s house after school to check up on him. They’d found him taking a ‘nap’, although in actuality Sora wasn’t physically that tired anymore after his mom forced him to eat, which she’d never done before; usually she let Sora eat what he wanted, but this time she insisted he eat more even when he said he wasn’t hungry. Okay, yeah, he had tried to stop after eating barely anything, true, but he hadn’t expected his mom to actually notice and say something! She even said she’d take him to a doctor if he didn’t start eating better… so stupid. She’d never cared about his eating habits before… Sora very briefly entertained the idea of stopping eating entirely out of spite. Or maybe he should anyway; the idea of wasting away was a little appeal—whoa, wait, where had that thought come from? 

So, anyway, Sora hadn’t actually been napping: he’d just had no motivation at all to do anything, opting instead to lie in bed and stare at the wall, trying to block out a slew of bad memories assaulting him, which hadn’t been working well. Some of the unversed tried to comfort him via cuddling—the rabbits were surprisingly fluffy, and the floods felt like silk—but it barely helped. Vani was sulking during that, saying something about something not being fair. Sora thought maybe he wanted to cuddle too, so asked Vani that after a while, but in response Vani said something about Sora mocking him and then went back into Sora’s heart to hide. Sora wasn’t really sure what that had been about.

When Riku and Kairi arrived, the unversed hid under the bed, and when the two convinced Sora to take a walk Sora’s mom saw them leaving so used the opportunity of the three being there to give them all a lecture on aftercare of irresponsible drinking. Sora was slightly embarrassed about that, but his mom rationalized it by claiming that they needed the information, as she’d be naïve to think it’d never happen again, and at the very least Kairi’s parents wouldn’t be giving her such a talk.

Sora quickly corralled his friends out the door after that lecture, concerned that his mother might decide some other topics needed discussing too; it was only a matter of time before Sora’s mom realized that Kairi would never be getting a lesbian sex talk from her parents and took it upon herself to give it.

Riku seemed to be thinking along the same lines. “Be thankful it was just that,” he told Kairi. “Any day now she’s going to realize that none of us ever formally got ‘The Talk’.” He emphasized the phrase with finger-quotes.

Kairi scoffed. “The school covers that, I’m sure she won’t—”

“Kairi, she knows you’re gay, and she knows the school’s stuff is all straight,” Sora pointed out. “She also knows your parents won’t give it.”

Kairi froze and her eyes widened. “Oh gods, you’re right. Your mom is going to give me The Talk.”

The three continued walking, heading to nowhere in particular. They found their way down a trail through some grassy dunes, enjoying a casual walk while chatting about anything and everything. After a couple hours, the trio decided to make their way back to their homes, as Kairi had a time limit as usual.

Sora dragged his feet a little. It was quite a way there, and Sora felt so tired… as before, not physical, rather mentally drained. He’d had an awesome time with them, of course, which had definitely distracted him from his negative thoughts and made him feel a little better, but heading home made him think of having to be without Riku, and then think about school the next day, and then to the words on his locker… he didn’t want to go. He really really didn’t want to go.

“Hey, Sora, you okay?” Riku asked, snapping Sora out of his thoughts.

“Huh? Yeah, just thinking.”

“What were you thinking about?” Kairi asked, curious.

“Oh. Just, school and stuff...” Come to think of it: “Hey, do either of you know how to remove permanent marker from things?”

Kairi frowned. “Permanent marker? Like, a sharpie?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, there’s different things you can use, but I have nail polish remover at home that generally works for that.”

“Nail polish remover? Wouldn’t that remove paint too?” Sora wondered. He didn’t want to damage school property.

“Maybe? Depends on the paint,” Kairi explained. “Why? Where do you need to remove it from?”

Sora shook his head. “Nowhere, just wondering,” he said quickly, realizing they might connect the dots, which he did not want them to do. It was fine, Sora was fine, he would remove the marker and then… and then they’d just write more on it again.

“Sora,” Riku said, sounding like he suspected it was more than that. Which made sense, as generally people did not just randomly ask such without a reason. “Where do—”

“I told you, just wondering,” Sora snapped, harsher than he’d meant. “It’s hypocritical, or whatever it’s called.”

“Hypothetical, and I don’t think it is…”

“It’s not a big deal! Really!” Sora argued, anger flashing now. He did not want to have them worrying about him, again! What was wrong with him? Why’d Sora even mention the stupid marker? “Just drop it, okay?”

“So it is on something,” Kairi noted.

“Yes! I mean, no! No, it’s nothing,” Sora insisted. Why wouldn’t the two just drop the subject already?

“Wait,” Kairi said. “I heard a rumor…” she began, and Sora tried not to groan. Of course she did. She continued, “that someone’s locker got vandalised. Don’t tell me it’s—”

“It’s fine! Just some words. No big deal.”

Riku replied to that, his calm demeanor belied by the tension in his voice. “Not a big deal? What were the words?”

“Please, drop it! I’ll be fine, it’s fine, just words. I’m used to it, it shouldn’t bother me!” He turned to the side, then noticed a new creature near them. It looked like a spinning top with a black ball for a head with two vines extended like arms. A flower was on its head, and it had the unversed symbol on the back of its head. It had bright red zig-zags on the face—eyes? Probably eyes—and a small point that looked like a nose. Strange. It was flanked by a few of the floods and rabbits, which commonly followed Sora around.

Riku sighed. “Sora—”.

Kairi’s gasp cut Riku off. “What are THOSE?!” she asked, drawing her keyblade.

“Huh?” Sora blinked. Kairi and Riku could see the unversed? They weren’t a hallucination this time!? ...Wait. Earlier that day they hadn’t been either, come to think of it, had they? Sora couldn’t have been cuddling them otherwise… No wonder Vani had been annoyed; Sora was pretty sure he hadn’t managed to be corporeal yet. Sora could have smacked himself for not realizing that earlier.

“I don’t know, but I don’t like the looks of them,” Riku said, drawing his keyblade as well.

Sora followed suit so Kairi and Riku didn’t get suspicious, trying to figure out if there was a way to subtly tell the unversed to run away. He didn’t want them hurt! Vani had said they didn’t have thoughts and feelings like actual animals would, calling them ‘disposable’, but still. 

In Sora’s panic, another rabbit appeared.

Sora tried to use a hand signal to tell them to run or disappear or something, but instead the unversed took it as a directive to attack Riku and Kairi… oh. Shit. Kairi and Riku had been the ones to make Sora upset with their prodding, so of course the unversed would attack them in an attempt to protect Sora.

Vani appeared in front of Sora, though still invisible to the other two, and waved his arms, trying to tell Sora something just as Riku drove the keyblade through the plant-like unversed, defeating it.

Sora gasped, doubling over in sudden pain.

“Sora!?” Riku shouted, rushing over to him. “Did it hit you? I think I saw it throwing thorns…”

Sora took a deep breath, collecting his bearings. “No, I’m fine.”

“I don’t think you—”

“I’m FINE!”

Kairi yelped. “There’s more of them!” she called, pointing to two more of the thorny spinning-tops and a new thing flying above them, which was similar to the floods but armless with two bat-like wings that extended from the head where ears generally would be.

Sora joined in the fight, unsure what else to do other than to get them to stop by force. Sora felt some more stabs of pain throughout the battle; did they have some sort of invisible attacks? 

_ You idiot!  _

Sora stopped. Huh? Was that Vani’s voice? Sora paused in his attacks and looked around to find the flood right in front of him, glaring.

_ Stop attacking them! _

“Why?” Sora asked. “They’re attacking us. Well, attacking Kairi and Riku.” The unversed were avoiding attacking Sora even though he was attacking them, Sora realized. Sora felt bad about that, but... “I don’t know how else to make them vanish...” Then he glanced towards Riku and Kairi; thankfully they were far enough away that they hadn’t heard, as it would appear that he was talking to himself. Vani’s voice was only in his mind, after all, he somehow knew. Riku had already heard him talk to seemingly nothing a couple times; Sora didn’t want his friends to think he was crazy!

Kairi defeated a bat thing, and Sora cringed as he felt the pain again.

_ Because of that! _

“Wait… you mean...”

_ Yes! The unversed cause pain to whomever summoned them when they’re defeated! _

“But mine are invisible…” Sora pointed out. “So… oh! Did you summon them? Sorry we’re hurting—oof!” Sora grunted with pain.

_ No you idiot! If you’re getting hurt, that means you did! I don’t know how in the ten circles of hell you managed to summon actual physical incarnations of them, as that should be exclusively my deal, but if you don’t take some deep breaths and calm down, they’ll just keep spawning and cause you more pain! _

Sora growled slightly, annoyed at himself; that should have been obvious, just like the unversed’s tangibility earlier. He was so stupid! “Well how do I stop them, then?” Sora asked Vani frantically.

_ Like I said, calm down! Unversed spawn from emotions, remember? You can make them stop if you Calm. The. Fuck. Down. _

Sora took a few deep breaths and closed his eyes, trying to not react to the stabs of pain, willing the unversed to go away.

“Huh?” Kairi called after a bit. “Where’d they go?”

“I don’t know,” Riku said. “I think they’re gone now, though… Sora!” Sora, eyes still closed and hands on his stomach, heard footsteps rushing towards him and then a comforting hand on his shoulder. “Sora, what’s wrong? Did you get hurt?”

Sora slowly shook his head, then opened his eyes, dropped his arms, and put on his best smile. “Sorry. Just a bit tired,” he said, not wanting to tell them that apparently he summoned the unversed and that it was painful to him when they were defeated; his friends would be immensely upset that they’d caused him pain like that, however unwittingly.

“What were those things?” Kairi wondered.

Riku shook his head and frowned. “I don’t know. They looked a bit like heartless... but the symbols were different. Sora, have you seen them before?”

Sora blinked. “Huh? Why would I have seen them before?” he asked quickly, trying not to panic again. Was Riku suspicious, or just curious?

Riku shrugged, though looked a little confused. “You travelled to some places I didn’t. Thought maybe you’d seen them there.”

“Oh. Well, I never saw them before either,” Sora semi-lied. Some of those specific forms he hadn’t seen until now, after all. And he didn’t say he didn’t know what they were, even though he did. That would have been a lie. This was just… omitting a detail or ten.

“We should consult someone about it,” Kairi said. “Mickey would know, right? Or maybe that wizard, what was his name, Yis Den?”

“Yen Sid,” Riku corrected. “Yeah, we can send a letter to them about it.”

“Do we really need to worry them, though?” Sora interjected. “What if this was just a one-time freak occurrence?”

“Better safe than sorry,” Riku stated. Ugh, why’d he have to be so responsible all the time?

“But we might unnecessarily worry them,” Sora argued. “Better to be certain first, right?”

“Sora, why are you arguing this?”

Sora shrugged. “I’m not. I just don’t want to worry people. Besides, we got it handled, right?” Sora grinned, painfully aware of how fake it probably looked.

Kairi frowned, looking at the spot the last few had been. “Did we? The last few kinda just vanished… maybe they retreated somewhere? Or they’re planning to ambush us or something...”

“Nah, heartless don’t think like that,” Sora said dismissively, hoping they didn’t notice the two rabbits watching them from the forest, trying to hide while still monitoring Sora. It seemed they now knew not to be in the open around others unless Sora was in danger, or what they perceived to be danger at least. “Come on, let’s get going,” Sora suggested.

“But these might not be heartless,” Riku pointed out, not dropping the subject to Sora’s annoyance. “I really think we should tell someone. I was thinking of writing a letter to Mickey anyway, asking about Hikari—last night she destroyed yet another TV. I can just include it in that.”

“We don’t even know how to send a letter to them,” Sora continued protesting. “Look, I’m sure these things aren’t just appearing here. We’ll probably get a notice from them saying to watch out soon.”

“Sora. It’s important we tell them anyway, just in case they don’t know yet. Why are you arguing this so much?”

“I’m not,” Sora denied. “Just, like I said, I don’t want to unnecessarily worry them. Besides, again, we don’t know how to send it.”

“Oh!” Kairi proclaimed. “What about the blue fairy? Gepetto said that’s how Pinocchio was made. If we wish on a star hard enough, she appears to grant wishes! Well, if she can. I’m sure sending a letter is within her abilities!”

“I dunno…” said Sora. “Will she really be okay with being used as a courier?” he was pushing the protesting, Sora knew. They’d be getting really suspicious soon.

Riku rolled his eyes. “Sora, I’m sure it’ll be fine. The fate of the worlds could be in jeopardy again.”

“Okay, now that’s definitely an exaggeration,” Sora said dryly. Sora definitely had no plans to conquer the worlds using his unversed.

“Sora…” Kairi said, narrowing her eyes. “Do you know what these things are?”

“What! No, of course not,” Sora lied. “Like I said, I just don’t want to worry them,” he said again. “They’re probably just a variation on heartless, right? They kinda look like them.”

“Except for the symbol. I’m writing that letter, Sora,” Riku said stubbornly.

Sora pouted. “Fine, whatever,” he acquiesced, knowing he wasn’t going to win the argument.

  
  


∞♣♥☼♥♣∞

Riku sat at the desk in his room, looking over the letter he’d written:

_ Mickey, _

_ Some things have come up lately that you need to be aware of, one which I need your advice on.  _

_ First, and most pressing, is that some heartless-like creatures have appeared on the Destiny Islands. I say heartless-like because, although they look similar and could be variations on such, some of them have symbols on them that we haven’t seen before. A drawing is attached. They were easy to defeat, like the weaker heartless, although some did vanish on their own. If they appear again I’m sure we can take care of them, but I thought you should know in case they are a sign of a bigger threat. _

_ Secondly, I now have a 21-month-old half-sister. Which is great overall, except there is one issue: about a week ago she summoned a keyblade, and is able to do magic. This is obviously causing problems, as she has no idea what to do with it and is too young to understand if we try explaining. The problem is expounded when she has a tantrum. As it is a keyblade, it is impossible to take away from her, so I was hoping that you might have some ideas on how to better control or reduce her use of it. Thank you in advance for your assistance. _

_ Sincerely, Riku _

Riku nodded, satisfied with the letter. He grabbed an envelope and gently folded the letter in before licking the glue to seal it, wincing as he did so. Couldn’t they make that stuff taste better? He pressed the letter closed, then scribbled Mickey’s name on the front.

Riku walked over to the windowsill and leaned out. Thankfully it was a beautiful night with stars fully visible. Riku picked the brightest one in the sky to wish upon, focusing heavily on it as he wished the letter be sent to Disney Castle. He did that for five full minutes, then sighed and gave up, retreating back into his room. Oh, well; it had been a shot in the dark. Maybe Kairi’s bottle trick would work; she’d somehow reached them in the Realm of Darkness that way, after all...

Suddenly, Riku could hear the sound of delicate bells, and a bright blue light lit up the room. Riku turned to see a ball of blue light, which quickly formed itself into the image of a beautiful woman clad in shimmering blue garments. Yup, definitely the blue fairy. Riku was stunned.

“Hello, Riku,” the fairy greeted. “No one has ever tried to use me as a courier service before.”

Riku blushed. “Sorry, but we’re not sure how to send letters across worlds, and it’s kinda urgent…”

“Yes, they really ought to have given you a way to contact them,” the fairy agreed. Riku didn’t question how she seemed to know things; she was a magical being. The Fairy Godmother, Merlin, the three good fairies, and the fairy-that-shall-not-be-named also magically had known things.

“So, does that mean you’ll get it to them…?”

“Yes, of course,” the blue fairy said kindly, taking the letter. “Also, for the future, here is a coin to call moogle mail services,” she said, handing him a small coin with a picture of a moogle. “Put it on top of a letter, and a moogle will appear to take it where you need, for a small fee.”

“Thank you!” Riku said gratefully, accepting the coin.

“But of course. As I said, they really ought to have given one to at least one of you… I will scold Jiminy about that.”

“What! No, that’s okay; I didn’t want to get anyone in trouble!” Riku said. “I’m sure they just forgot; a lot was happening.”

“Yes, but Jiminy has been given the role of a conscience. He ought to be more responsible… now, is that all you need? I sense there is more, something you are worried about. Perhaps I can help?”

Riku blushed. He had been worried over Sora, true. “It’s… well, Sora hasn’t been feeling well,” Riku told the fairy. “He’s been trying to hide it, but I’m very worried… I think he’s been seeing things, and only pretending to be happy…”

“Oh,” the fairy said, sounding sad. “Unfortunately, it is not within my power to alter someone’s thoughts and emotions. If it were a physical health issue, yes, but this is not. He needs the love and support of friends and family to help him, at the very minimum.”

“He already has that,” Riku said confidently. “But still…”

“Unfortunately, there is nothing I can do,” the blue fairy said again, her voice gentle. “However, I’m sure you’ll find a way to aid him. Sora is a very lucky young man to have someone like you in his life.”

Riku blushed, unsure how to respond, then remembered something else. “Oh, one more thing—sorry I’m asking so much. My sister. She—”

“Yes, I am aware of the predicament,” the Blue Fairy said. “Unfortunately, fairy magic cannot interfere with the magic of others, including keyblades. I would contact one of your wizard friends about that.”

Riku nodded. “Right, got it.”

“Now, I must leave,” the Blue Fairy said abruptly. “I sense another call… I wish you luck.”

“Thank you,” Riku said as the fairy returned to the ball of light and zoomed out the window.

Riku wondered if the fairy actually had to immediately leave or if she just didn’t want him asking about more things she couldn’t do; Riku would certainly be embarrassed if he were a wish-granting fairy yet couldn’t grant someone’s wishes. Not that Riku had any more; his main prerogatives were protecting Sora and Hikari. Hopefully Mickey would have a solution for the latter, but the former… Riku decided he should ask his dad about it. He was much older, so he ought to know.

Riku made his way downstairs—making sure to be extra quiet passing Hikari’s door, as she’d be asleep—to where his dad was watching TV, sprawled on the couch. Riku sat cross-legged in the nearby reclining chair. It didn’t have the best view of the TV—which was playing some sort of crime drama—but Riku wasn’t very interested in watching.

“Dad?” Riku asked.

Riku’s dad muted the TV and sat up. “Hey,” he greeted. “Did you send that letter?” Riku had of course told his dad all about seeing the heartless-things and how he’d be sending a letter about that and Hikari.

“Yeah, but that’s not what I want to talk about…”

“What’s up? You sound serious,” Riku’s dad noted.

Riku bit his lip, pondering how to word things. “It’s about Sora… I don’t think he’s been feeling well. I mean, physically he’s fine, but…” Riku trailed off.

“You think he might be depressed or something?” Riku’s dad predicted. 

Riku blinked. “Yeah. How did you know?”

“Well, firstly, it’s common for victims of bullying to become depressed or get PTSD, even more so when it involves an assault. Quite frankly, I’d be shocked if Sora was completely fine after that. Secondly, I’ve definitely noticed it too. I’m planning on discussing it with his mom this weekend—I scheduled a lunch meeting with her to discuss possibly suing the school.”

“Suing the school?” Riku asked in shock. “Seriously? Why?” Could they really do that if Sora hadn’t actually told anyone about the bullies until the attack?

“It’s not about the bullying, it’s about the air conditioning situation,” Riku’s dad explained, catching Riku’s thought.

“What?” Riku was confused now.

“Because of a lack of such, Sora fainted in class from the heat.”

“But… that was also because he hadn’t eaten. Won’t they try to bring that up?”

“Not if we get other parents involved,” Riku’s dad said. “It’s happened in the past, and can easily happen in the future according to the nurse. We’re hoping enough parents supporting the idea combined with the threat of being sued will be enough for the school to install some, but if we do need to actually submit a case, we’re hoping it doesn’t actually have to go to court, rather the school will settle out of court. All we’re asking for is the installation of air conditioners. Even if not in the whole school, we hope they’ll at least put them in the higher-risk classrooms, like the cooking and mechanics ones. I’m actually surprised they haven’t put them in yet; it’s a huge liability risk for the school.”

Riku nodded. “Makes sense,” he said. “So, what exactly are you going to tell his mom about Sora? I remember when he was a kid she got really upset when the school suggested he see someone about his lack of focus.”

Riku’s dad nodded. “Yeah, but that was different. I’m hoping she’ll see the logic in it this time… you know, it’d probably be good for you to see someone too.”

“Me!” Riku proclaimed, shocked. “I’m not depressed.”

“Didn’t say you were; but you went through quite the traumatic two years. I know you have nightmares about it, and I’ve seen you flinch at loud noises. You drew your keyblade on a squirrel your third day back.”

“...Okay, you do have a point,” Riku admitted. “But it’s not like I can talk with a therapist about it! What do I even say? ‘I dream about being trapped in darkness by a madman who’s possessing my body. Oh, by the way, that’s a memory. And I’m also on edge because I keep expecting shadow creatures to attack, which is actually a real possibility now.’ That sounds like something that’ll get me locked up.”

Riku’s dad sighed. “Yeah, I realized that too as soon as I thought about it. You do seem to have a good handle on it, anyway; it’s Sora I’m more worried about. Tell me, what specifically have you noticed?”

Riku sighed too. “Well…”


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a very heavy chapter with lots of emotional pain. Please be aware of this going in; if you want happiness and fluff right now, this is not the chapter to read.

Sora lay in his bed staring up at the ceiling, thinking about… everything. He felt overwhelmed. Would those unversed things appear whenever he got upset? Would they attack people? They physically hurt Sora when they were defeated, which in turn made more appear if Sora couldn’t calm… Would this be his life? Sora wondered if there was a way he could stop himself from having the emotions that caused them. A magic spell, maybe? Probably not. Well, at least none were appearing at the moment; Sora wasn’t feeling emotional, he was feeling  _ empty _ . Numb. But he’d feel again eventually, and then they’d appear… and hurt people. Surely there must be something he could do… 

Sora sighed and sat up in bed. The house was eerily quiet; usually at this hour he could hear the TV in his mom’s room, or her snoring, but she was away for a few days at some conference for teachers. Sora had returned from his ‘adventure’ with Riku and Kairi to find a note about it; apparently his mom couldn’t wait for Sora to get home to tell him in-person because she had lost track of the days and had to leave immediately—it was far enough away that she’d need to be staying whenever it was, so she had to leave that afternoon as the conference started at 8am and she wasn’t going to leave at 5am to get there… Anyway, the point was, Sora was on his own for a few days. He was alone in the quiet of the night. Fitting for his mood.

Sora wondered why he even kept bothering with everything. Yeah, he’d saved the worlds, but after that, nothing. Things had only spiralled down. He’d reached the peak of the mountain, and then fallen down the cliff on the other side. Not that the adventuring itself had been a high point... sometimes it was, yeah, and he’d met a lot of cool people, but it had been full of pain as well. Sora still had nightmares. The twitchiness at every shadow had faded, though; the unversed would protect him from threats. Sora wasn’t sure how he knew that so certainly, but he did. But how would he even explain that to his friends? Surely they’d be mad. Disappointed. Chide him for listening to a dark being. Being a dark being? They’d probably think that, as the unversed were assumed to be dark.

Then again, Sora had already been worrying everyone so much lately. He couldn’t help but feel like a burden… maybe he shouldn’t have returned. Just stayed in the Realm of Darkness, wasted away there. Everyone would probably be better off for it. Sora would have just faded away in peace. People would have been sad, but they’d have gotten over it. They’d gotten over it when Sora and Riku had vanished. Moved on. 

A thought popped into Sora’s mind that he began to entertain. People could do that again. Get over it, move on. With Sora gone, they wouldn’t have to worry. Maybe they’d be sad at first, but then they’d soon realize they were better off without him after all, happier without the constant worrying over him. Running away wouldn’t work; they’d find him. They’d deluded themselves into thinking they needed him, even though they’d be better off without. Plus, Sora would continue to be in pain if he ran, whether they found him or not. He didn’t want to be in pain. If running wouldn’t stop the pain… 

The more he thought about it, the more Sora realized that it was the best thing to do. There’d be no more unversed, no more chance he’d hurt people with them. There’d be no more pain. It was for the best. Yeah, Riku would probably be more upset than the others, but he’d get over it too. He’d understand; he’d made sacrifices himself before, too. Yeah, it was a good solution…

_ What the fuck are you doing? _

“Huh?” with a start, Sora realized he’d somehow wandered to the bathroom. “Um. Using the toilet?”

_ With the medicine cabinet open? _

Sora blinked, realizing that yes, it was indeed open in front of him. “Oh.” Maybe he’d been considering it more seriously than he’d thought… Well, he was here anyway… Right. Yeah. It was for the best, after all. Sora reached up to grab a random bottle of something and look at the label. Headache medicine? No, that one wouldn’t work… He put it back and picked up the next one. Oh, sleeping pills. Maybe those?

_ Sora! Put those down! NOW! _

Sora gave a start again. “Why?” he asked Vani listlessly. “I’m just going to take one so I can sleep.”

_ Don’t lie! I can feel your emotions, idiot!  _

“Okay, fine,” Sora acknowledged. “Then you know I’m not putting them down. It’s the best thing for everyone.”

_ Even those trapped in your heart? _

Sora gave pause to that. “They’ll find someone else’s heart,” Sora concluded.

_ That’s not how it works! _

“You don’t know that for sure. Besides, it’s my body. You’re just freeloaders.”

_ You don’t mean that. Look, go to sleep. You’ll wake up feeling better, thinking this was a silly idea, and be all apologetic about calling us that. Now go to sleep. _

“Sleep? Yeah, good idea,” Sora said, reaching to unscrew the cap.

_ Not that way! Sora, please, stop! _ Vanitas started trying to swipe at the bottle.  _ You’re being impulsive! Please stop! _

_ STOP! _ Sounded a cacophony of other voices, and Sora felt his body seize up. He dropped the bottle and let out a gasp.

Multiple people were speaking at once in his head. Sora put his hands over his ears and closed his eyes, but of course it didn’t stop, being in his head.

_ Great, the others figured out how to talk, _ Vani said dryly, more distinct than the other voices.

“The others?” Sora asked blankly. It was difficult to think with the other voices in his head, all overlapping to the point Sora couldn’t make anything out.

_ Yeah, they’re not helping things by panicking. You call Riku, I’ll shut them up. _ Vani vanished.

“Riku?” Sora said absently, hardly registering what Vani had said. Who was he talking about? Who were the voices? …Oh, duh. It’d be Roxas, Ventus, and the mystery girl—his heart guests. All three sounded panicked, their emotions spilling over a little and causing Sora’s heart to race too. 

The voices stopped, and Sora’s ears rang a bit in the sudden silence. Sora stood there for a moment, processing what had just happened. He glanced at the floor; the bottle had burst open. Sora’s eyes widened and he froze momentarily as he realized what he’d been seconds away from doing. Sora’s panic, originally triggered by the others but now all his, began to grow. Had he really been about to…? Then he remembered what Vani had said: call Riku. Right. Riku. Riku could help him. Sora tore into the hallway and grabbed the phone on the wall, rushing to dial Riku’s number.

“Hello?” came the tired voice of Riku’s dad.

“Is Riku there?” Sora asked, trying to sound calm, though his strained voice belied such.

“Sora, it’s past midnight. He’s asleep.”

“Please?” Sora said, voice desperate. “I need him.”

“Okay, one moment,” Riku’s dad said, and the phone made a small sound as Riku’s dad put it down to retrieve the silverette.

Sora realized he was shaking. The voices were quiet—not even Vanitas seemed to be around. Sora again realized how close he’d come to… where had that even come from? He didn’t actually… want to do… did he? Maybe. He’d been having thoughts about such for days, though hadn’t really entertained them that much before now… had he? Sora didn’t trust himself not to follow through on the thoughts at the moment.

“Sora?” came Riku’s voice from the phone, sounding sleepy.

“Riku!” Sora declared in relief. “Riku, I need you here, now. Please?”

“What’s wrong?” Riku asked, sounding more alert.

“Just, please. I need you,” Sora begged. He wasn’t sure how to articulate exactly what he was feeling or why he needed Riku to be there.

“Why, what’s going on? Did you have a nightmare?”

Sora shook his head, then realized Riku couldn’t see him. “No. I’m… I’m having bad thoughts, and I’m afraid, and my mom’s not here tonight so I’m alone and I’m afraid something might happen and please, Riku, I need you.”

“Are you hurt?”

“Not yet.”

“Not… Sora, what do you mean, ‘not yet’?” Riku demanded, sounding panicked. “Don’t move from where you are; I’ll be there in a few minutes.” There was a click, and then the dial tone.

Sora hung up the phone and put his back to the wall, slinking down to the floor and putting his knees to his chest, arms wrapped around him, not moving from where he was just as Riku had instructed. Vani was still quiet; Sora hadn’t realized how used to his presence he’d gotten. Sora felt numb again. Alone. Tired, but not physically. All energy drained out of him. If darkness tried to absorb him at that moment, he’d let it. Out of the corner of his eye he caught sight of the pills on the bathroom floor. Maybe… 

“Sora?” came a shout as Riku entered the house. 

“Up here,” Sora said, though probably too quietly for Riku to hear. He realized some unversed were around him; Sora hoped they had the sense to hide when Riku appeared.

Footsteps sounded on the stairs and then Riku appeared, still in pajamas. “Sora!” he called, flipping the hallway light switch on and rushing over to Sora to kneel next to him, putting his hands on Sora’s shoulders to look at his face. “Sora, what’s going on, what happened?”

Sora couldn’t bring himself to look at Riku. “I…” he began, unsure how to describe what had happened. “I almost… I didn’t, but it was close…”

“You almost?” Riku asked, confused. “Almost what?”

Sora waved a hand towards the bathroom; you could see into it from where they were sitting, although it was dark. 

Riku squinted his eyes as he looked, then gasped when he realized what he was seeing. “Sora, is that… are you saying you… did you… Sora, did you try to kill yourself?!” he turned to look at Sora, panicked. “Did you take anything? Do we need to get you to a hospital?”

“I didn’t take anything,” Sora said, still not looking at Riku. “I almost did, but then… then I don’t know why I stopped,” he lied, not wanting to reveal Vani, then realized how that sounded. 

“You don’t… Sora! Why? Why would you even consider doing that?” Riku asked, his voice coming out strained.

Sora shrugged, which was difficult because as he did so Riku wrapped Sora in a tight hug. It hurt the bruises a little, but Sora couldn’t bring himself to say anything about it. Sora felt Riku’s silent tears falling on his neck.

“I’m sorry,” Sora said, not sure what else to do. He felt apathetic again, brain a bit fuzzy.

Riku shook his head. “Don’t apologize. It’s not your fault.”

“What? Of course it is, I’m the one who—”

“Stop it,” Riku chided. “Stop blaming yourself for everything. We’ll get you help, okay? You can get through this.”

“Help?” Sora scoffed. “No one can help me,” he said dejectedly.

“Nonsense. There are people trained in helping with this sort of thing. You’re not alone, Sora. It may feel like that now, but you’re not the only one who’s ever felt this way,” Riku said gently. “You’ll get through this.”

“Yeah? What, are you going to lock me up in some asylum and leave me there?” Sora asked bitterly, though his heart wasn’t in the retort. He knew Riku definitely wouldn’t do that. “Probably for the best,” he added, barely audible.

“What? Of course not!” Riku proclaimed, sounding offended. “I’d never do that!” Riku took a deep breath, then said more levelly, “There’s plenty of outpatient options. I’ll even go with you, if you want. They can help you work out your feelings, and even prescribe medicine that can help you feel better if needed.” It sounded like Riku had thought about this before. Had Sora been that obvious?

Sora considered this. Could that really help him? Help take away all the pain, make him feel better again? “Maybe,” he said, not wanting to think about it too much at the moment. His brain was pretty much fried at the moment from all that had happened. “I’ll think about it later. I’m too tired right now.”

“Okay. You want me to stay with you?” Riku asked gently, although Sora knew Riku wasn’t truly asking Sora. Riku knew Sora didn’t like being forced into doing things, even if necessary; the question had been to help Sora feel like he still had some control over what was happening. There was no way Riku was going to leave Sora alone after that, just like there was no way that Sora wouldn’t be seeing someone about this.

“Please. I’m afraid of what I’ll do if left alone,” Sora admitted. 

“Okay.” Riku released Sora and stood. “Can you stand?”

Sora nodded and stood shakily, Riku helping him. Sora then felt a wave of emotion and began bawling, flopping his full weight onto Riku and burying his face in Riku’s chest, clutching his shirt.

“Whoa,” Riku said automatically in response to the sudden weight, quickly regaining his balance and wrapping his arms around Sora’s waist to stabilize him. “Shhh, it’ll all be okay Sora, I promise,” Riku said as he pulled Sora closer and rubbed circles into his back, shifting Sora so his head was tucked under Riku’s chin.

After what must have been at least five minutes of Sora crying his eyes out while Riku whispered comforting words to him, Sora’s tears subsided. As the numbness returned, Sora noticed that unversed were hiding in many of the shadowy corners of the hallway behind Riku, and there were a lot more than before. Sora was relieved that they knew Riku would be upset if he saw them. Sora willed most of them to go away, which was easy as his emotions had pretty much evaporated, replaced by a hollow feeling.

“Feeling better?” Riku asked gently.

“Not really,” Sora said honestly.

“Come on, let’s go to my place,” Riku suggested, releasing Sora slightly, but leaving his hands on his shoulders..

“What, so both you and your dad can watch me?”

“Yes,” Riku said simply. “You said you don’t trust yourself right now, remember? I just want to be extra safe.”

It made sense. “Okay,” Sora agreed, looking Riku in the eyes for the first time that night. They were sad eyes, yet comforting too. Sora knew Riku would take care of him, protect Sora from even himself.

“We should contact your mom, too,” Riku said. “Where is she? Do you have her contact information?”

“No, she forgot to leave it again,” Sora explained. “She left earlier for some conference on the mainland; I don’t remember the name of it. She won’t be back for a few days.”

Riku nodded. “Okay. My dad might know. I’m going to call him.” Riku turned to the phone, keeping one hand on Sora, as though afraid he might run. Which was fair. He dialed the number. “Hey, dad,” Riku said. “I’m bringing Sora over… yeah, it’s an emergency, I’ll explain when we get there… yeah. Okay, see you soon.”

Riku turned back to Sora and instructed, “Go pack your school clothes. I’ll go clean up the bathroom; if we can’t contact her, we don’t want your mom returning to find that.”

Sora nodded. “Okay.” 

Sora listlessly walked to his room while Riku headed to the bathroom. He flicked on the light and examined his room, things strewn all over the place; he’d always been bad at staying organized, but this was on a new level. He just hadn’t been able to bring himself to tidy up at all lately, not even to put things like clothes away. Sora looked around for a school outfit; he didn’t see a clean one. Eh, it wasn’t like anyone would notice. His clothes were always baggy and wrinkly anyway. Sora grabbed the first one he saw and stuffed it in his school backpack, realizing he hadn’t done any of his homework. Oh well. Not like he cared about grades much anymore anyway.

Riku found Sora standing in the middle of his room staring blankly at the wall, holding his backpack in one hand. Sora was trying not to think of things, and his mind seemed to be complying. He felt like he was in a dream-like haze, though he wasn’t exactly sleepy. Riku grabbed Sora’s hand and gently led him out of the house and down the street, Sora barely aware of what was going on around him until they arrived at Riku’s house.

Riku’s dad greeted them, and Riku explained the situation while Sora barely paid attention, Riku’s hand still holding tightly to Sora’s.

“What do we do?” Riku finished, tears in his eyes again, to Sora’s surprise. He’d never seen Riku quite this emotional.

Riku’s dad put a hand on each boy’s shoulder. “First, Sora, you’re staying here tonight. Tomorrow I’m going to try contacting your mom and a psychiatrist; hopefully we can find someone who will see you right after school. Does that work? Sora?”

“Huh?” Sora said blankly, taking a moment to process things. “Umm… yeah, that works I guess.” Truthfully Sora probably would just want to sleep all day, but he knew they weren’t going to let him get away with that. The question had been a formality; Riku’s dad was going to take Sora to see someone regardless of his thoughts on the matter. Sora leaned into Riku’s side, and Riku let go of his hand to wrap the arm around Sora’s shoulders instead. Speaking of sleep, it was awfully late. “Can we sleep now? I’m tired,” Sora stated. More mentally than physically, but still.

Riku smiled gently at Sora. “Yeah, let’s get some sleep,” he said, leading Sora towards his room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you are thinking the kinds of things Sora is in this chapter and are not getting help for it, please get help. Don't wait until it's too late. You are not alone, and it truly does get better; maybe not immediately, but it will, I promise. <3


	15. Chapter 15

Sora sighed, curled up in the corner of the Secret Place on the Play Island, back against the bumpy cavern wall with his knees pulled up, resting his forearms on his knees as he fiddled with the hems of the sleeves of the oversized hoodie he wore. Sora hadn’t been back there since returning; he’d hoped it’d bring some comfort, but it only brought memories. There were good memories of it, of course, many of them, but at the moment only the very bad ones wanted to rear their heads… 

Sora had ducked out of school after homeroom, during which he’d gotten another demerit for forgetting his tie. Sora would have rather not gone to school at all, but Riku and his dad both insisted. Sora had missed enough school as it was, they had claimed. So, Sora pretended he was going to school, assured them he’d go to all his classes, and then left anyway. He’d walked around for a while before finally coming here. Riku and Kairi would have noticed as soon as Sora didn’t show up for his class with them, but Sora hoped they’d just let it go and not look for him until after school. Knowing his luck though, they had started looking for him at lunch and skipped class until they found him. Couldn’t they let him brood in peace?

_ So, tell me again why you’re skipping school? And why are we here of all places? _

“Because this is where they’re meeting us,” Sora said to Vani, uncurling and stretching his legs out straight. “Obviously.”

_ Ooh, attitude, nice. But you know they’re not picking you all up until after school. You’re hours early. _

Sora shrugged. “I know,” he said. Riku apparently had actually sent a letter via the Blue Fairy to Mickey the previous night, and Riku had woken up to find he’d already gotten a reply in the form of a letter sitting on his nightstand. Mickey wanted them all to see Yen Sid immediately to further discuss things, which Sora probably should have expected. Yen Sid also had a magical amulet that, when worn, would prevent Hikari summoning her keyblade and using magic, but he had to attune it to her specifically so she’d be going there with them too. Donald and Goofy would be collecting Kairi, Riku, Sora, and Hikari that afternoon, as they didn’t want them missing school. Sora had tried to bail out—Yen Sid often got him on edge, and the last thing he needed was for one of those unversed to appear in Yen Sid’s tower—but the ancient wizard insisted he wanted all of them there. 

Well, at least the silver lining was that Sora didn’t have to go to a stupid psychiatrist or whatever yet. He’d agreed to, yeah, but that didn’t mean he was happy about it. He could deal with things on his own. The previous night had just been a fluke that wouldn’t happen again. Probably. But if it did, would that be so bad? Well, whatever. Sora didn’t have the energy to deal with that at the moment.

_ Then why did you skip school? _

“I just didn’t feel like going. Do I need another reason?”

_...No, I suppose not. You still should go though. _

“Why do you even care?”

_ I wonder that too. By all rights I shouldn’t, seeing as I’m—  _

“Pure darkness, yeah, I know,” Sora interrupted. “Still don’t believe it.”

_ And it still escapes me why. _

“Well, you can’t be a friend to someone if you’re made of only negativity,” Sora explained.

_ Then I guess we’re not friends. _

“Yes we are.”

_ But you just said— _

“Exactly.”

_ You truly do baffle me, Sora. _

“Hey, wait,” Sora said, realizing he’d never asked Vani something. “Where did you disappear to last night?”

_ Huh? Kinda a random topic change there, but okay. First I tried discussing things with the others. Turns out they’ve been ‘asleep’ less than I thought. They’ve been watching everything going on, though can’t communicate with you usually—last night’s yelling was a one-time thing, they think, at least for now.  _

“Oh,” Sora said. He’d been hoping to talk to them again, though not all at once like they’d tried to do the previous night. Sora asked, “Are they upset with you?” Vani had told him all about the past things he’d done, especially to Ventus.

_ Surprisingly no. They thanked me for caring for you? Dunno why, as I don’t think I’m very good at that. They’re the ones that saved you, not me. Anyway, for some reason that made even Ventus forgive me. _

“That’s a good thing!” Sora said, happy for Vani.

_ I guess. It’s weird. He’s too forgiving, like you. _

Sora frowned. “That’s not true.”

_ Whatever. _

“So, what’d you do next? I didn’t hear from you until this morning.” Sora had woken to Vani sleeping next to him, thankfully still unseen by Riku. 

_ I watched. Riku seemed to have it handled. Thought you’d want to be alone with him. _

“Oh. Okay.” Sora blushed; he wasn’t sure how he felt about that. It was nice Vani had thought to give them time alone, but Sora had grown very accustomed to having Vani around, and Sora had been a bit anxious without him. He’d been concerned something had happened to Vani, or maybe that Vani had been upset with Sora. Sora probably should mention that. “I appreciate it, really, but—”

“Sora?” came a voice from nearby. Sora froze. Kairi. Crap, how much did she hear? She appeared around the curve of the cave, looking around curiously, as though expecting to see someone there. “Who are you talking to?” she asked.

“No one,” Sora quickly denied, drawing his knees up and wrapping his arms around them.

“But I heard voices.”

Sora blinked in surprise. “Voices?” he asked tepidly. “As in, more than one?”

“Mhmm. Couldn’t catch what you were saying, but there was definitely someone else here…”

_ What the fuck.  _

“See? There it is again…” she mused. “It’s muffled, though. I can’t make out the words nor where it is…” She looked around again.

“How?” Sora said in a whisper.

“Hm?”

“Nothing. You must be hearing things, Kairi.”

“Really, Sora?” Kairi said as she sat down next to him, in a tone indicating she definitely did not believe that BS. 

“Why are you here, Kairi?” Sora asked tiredly, diverting the subject. He didn't even bother trying to fake being happy; he just wanted to be left alone. Well, as much alone as he could be with four people in his heart.

“Because you didn’t show up for class. Riku and I got worried. When you weren’t at your house, we split up to look elsewhere. He didn’t think you’d be here, but I thought I'd check anyway… Why are you even here? Have you been the whole time?”

“No, I walked around for a while; I only just got here,” Sora explained, then shrugged. “I wasn’t feeling well, and thought this place might be comforting. It isn’t.”

“Do you have a fever?” Kairi asked, feeling Sora’s forehead with the back of her hand.

Sora shook her off. “No. Just tired. Didn’t feel like being in school; I wouldn’t have been able to concentrate well today anyway.”

Kairi looked at Sora with a curious expression. “Did something happen? You’re not usually so mopey.”

Sora glared at her. “What, I can’t be in a bad mood sometimes?” he snapped.

Kairi looked hurt. “That’s not what I—”

“I’m sorry,” Sora quickly apologized, feeling bad about taking his agitation with everything out on her like that. He tried not to react to the unversed that had appeared in a dark corner behind Kairi, only their eyes visible in the dim shadows of the cave. “I didn’t mean to yell. I’m just a bit on edge I guess,” he explained, taking a few deep breaths to calm himself; the unversed vanished.

“Well, okay,” Kairi said. “Come on, let’s go find Riku and collect Hikari.”

Sora bit his lip. “Can’t you do that?”

“Sora?”

“I just… need some time alone. Please. I know it’s not like me, but—”

“No, it’s okay,” Kairi interrupted. “You don’t have to be a people person all the time. I’ll go find Riku; you wait here, okay?”

Sora nodded. “Okay.”

Kairi left, and Sora curled in on himself more. That went well, he thought bitterly. He worried Kairi, which he didn’t want to do. She’d then tell Riku, who would get worried too… well, actually he probably already was very worried. Sora should have just faked happiness, made up some other reason for being there, said he was too excited thinking about seeing the others or something, even though it was the opposite. In any other circumstance, Sora would be overjoyed about seeing Donald and Goofy again. Yet now… Sora couldn’t help but think he’d be found out. Vani had told him everything that happened; Sora knew that revealing Vani would cause everyone to panic. So he wouldn’t. But there was a high possibility the unversed would get summoned… Plus, how would they react to him and Riku being together? Should Sora even tell them? Sora didn’t know what they thought about homosexuality. Would Sora being gay make them stop being his friend?

Sora sighed and flopped onto his side, grabbing a rabbit unversed that had spawned and cuddling it like a teddy bear. Maybe if he took a nap he’d wake up and feel better.

  
  


∞♣♥☼♥♣∞

Riku tried his best not to panic as he walked/ran around the island looking for Sora. He really hoped Kairi had more luck… Riku had wanted to leave as soon as they realized Sora wasn’t going to show up for class, but Kairi insisted they wait for lunch—she assumed he was still near the school. That lasted less than five minutes before Riku was dashing out of the classroom, not bothering to explain to the teacher why. When Sora hadn’t been near the school, Riku broke down. Kairi found Riku crying about it—okay, that was an under-exaggeration, it was a full-blown panic attack—once she’d gotten outside after class had ended; Riku knew he should have been looking for Sora, but he couldn’t help being overcome by the panic. So the two had skipped the rest of the day to search for Sora. It’d already been a few hours… Riku wouldn’t usually be worried enough to panic, as Sora had skipped school before, but considering Sora’s state the previous evening… they should have taken him to see someone first thing that morning, told Mickey that they couldn’t come immediately after all...

“Riku!” came a shout from the distance Riku recognized as Kairi. She ran up to him. “I found Sora!”

Riku felt relief followed by worry as he realized Sora wasn’t with her. “What happened? Where is he?”

“He’s at the Secret Place.”

“And you just left him there?!” Riku exclaimed loudly.

Kairi looked confused at the outburst. “Yes? He said he needed some time alone. I told him I’d find you, then we’d meet him back there with Hikari.”

Riku took a deep breath and nodded, trying to stay calm. Kairi wasn’t aware of what had happened; anyone would have done the same as she had. “Okay, yeah, makes sense I guess…” Riku said, then he shook his head, again recalling the previous night, unable to suppress the rising panic. “No, I’m going to go meet Sora now. Could you pick up Hikari?”

Kairi scrunched her brow in confusion. “Okay? But, why? Riku, did something happen? You’re acting like he’s in danger.”

“He…” Riku shifted, unsure how much to say. “He hasn’t been feeling well lately,” he settled on. “I’m just concerned… Look, I’m probably overreacting, I know. Just, please?”

Kairi nodded, looking like she wanted to ask more but accepted that Riku wouldn’t reveal anything further. “Okay. I’ll meet you there,” she agreed, heading in the opposite direction as Riku.

Riku practically flew to the Play Island, using some dark teleports to cross the expanse of water, not caring who saw him. He kicked up clouds of sand as he darted towards the cave, nearly crashing into the small waterfall next to it as he skidded to a stop.

“Sora?” Riku called into the cave as he entered. “You here?”

Riku found Sora in the back of the cave, lying on the ground. He had on a sweatshirt again—Riku’s sweatshirt, which Riku felt a brief wave of affection at, though it was quickly taken over again by worry. A cold front had come in so it was technically a brisk enough day for a sweatshirt to be acceptable—still, it reminded Riku too much of when Sora had collapsed in the classroom just over 24 hours earlier. 

“Sora!” Riku yelled, rushing to his boyfriends side and shaking him, terrified that maybe Sora had followed through with the previous night’s attempt.

“Ngh?” Sora grumbled sleepily as he blinked open his eyes.

“Oh thank the gods,” Riku said, scooping Sora up into a tight hug.

“What the fuck, Riku?” Sora protested grumpily. “I was just taking a nap.”

“You scared me,” Riku admitted, coming out muffled as his face was pressed into Sora’s shoulder, trying to hide tears.

“Riku, come on,” Sora complained, wiggling a little. “You’re holding too tightly; I still have bruises, you know!

“Oh! Sorry!” Riku said, loosening his grip and shifting to sit cross-legged. Sora wriggled into a more comfortable position sitting in Riku’s lap and flug his arms around Riku’s shoulders.

Now Sora’s face was the one pressed into Riku. “I’m sorry,” he mumbled.

“For what?” Riku asked, confused.

“For worrying you again.”

Riku shook his head. “Sora, you don't need to apologize for that. Stop worrying about worrying other people and worry about yourself. You can’t keep bottling everything up; let us worry about you. Let us help you.”

Sora grumbled something indistinct and then glared in a direction to Riku’s left. Riku turned, but nothing was there.

“Sora?” Riku asked tepidly. Was the brunette seeing something that wasn’t there, or something that was there but Riku couldn’t see? Honestly with the lives they had it could be either.

Sora shook his head. “Sorry, it’s nothing,” he said hurriedly.

Riku let the subject drop. “Why did you skip school?” he asked instead.

Sora shrugged. “Didn’t want to be there.”

“You didn’t think that’d worry us? Sora, I was terrified you’d…” Riku couldn’t say it; he felt tears gathering in his eyes, but made no attempt to stop them.

Sora curled in closer to Riku. “I’m sorry,” he said again through a sniffle. “I guess I wasn’t thinking about that.”

Riku pulled Sora close as he and Sora both softly wept. They sat like that for who knows how long, tears halting somewhere along the way, each other’s mere presence calming for them both.

“Sora? Riku?” Kairi called as she entered the cave. “Did I interrupt something?” she asked upon seeing the two curled up together. She squinted in the dim light. “Wait. Were you two crying?”

Riku and Sora both wiped their eyes. “No,” they said at the same time.

“Jinx,” Sora said with a small smile, and Riku rolled his eyes.

“Right, that’s definitely believable,” Kairi said sarcastically. “Anyway, Donald and Goofy are already here; I left Hikari with them.”

“Already?” Riku asked, slightly confused. 

“Well, it’s already nearly three,” Kairi pointed out. “That was the time they said they’d be here, remember?” School ended just before two, and they were given an hour between that and pick-up.

“Oh. Didn’t realize it was so late already,” Riku said, surprised. He and Sora must have been crying for longer than he’d thought. Riku was relieved Donald and Goofy hadn’t thought to look in the cave. Riku stood up with Sora following. “You okay to go?” he asked the brunette, who nodded. 

Kairi looked confused at the interaction. “Is something going on that you’re not telling me?” Kairi asked, sounding worried and confused.

Sora shifted uncomfortably and looked away in response. “I’m not ready to talk about it right now, okay? When I am you’ll be the first I tell, promise.”

“Well, actually—” Riku began.

“Right, first who doesn’t absolutely need to know,” Sora said, rolling his eyes. “I think that was implied.”

Kairi just looked more confused at that. “Don’t worry about it,” Riku said, leading Sora out of the cave by the hand, Kairi trailing along.

“Donald! Goofy!” Sora proclaimed, putting on a huge (fake) smile and releasing Riku’s hand in order to run over to greet the dog and duck, who were watching Hikari as she splashed at the edge of the sea.

“Is Sora going to be okay?” Kairi asked Riku quietly, watching the scene. It appeared she’d definitely caught onto there being something very wrong, just didn’t know specifically what.

“I hope so,” Riku said, voice equally as quiet and heart heavy.


	16. Chapter 16

“Now, you are certain this exact symbol is the one you observed on the creatures in question?” Yen Sid asked, referring to the symbol drawn on the letter Riku had sent to Mickey. Sora, Riku, and Kairi had just finished describing their encounter with the unversed (heavily edited on Sora’s part, to the point of his contribution being more lie than truth). The elderly wizard had gone straight to discussing that when they got there, not bothering to even greet them. Which Sora was fine with; the sooner he got out of there the better. 

“Yeah,” Riku confirmed.

“This is quite disturbing,” Yen Sid commented. “The creatures you encountered are known as ‘unversed’. They are summoned and controlled by a dark being we thought had been defeated over a decade ago. They are manifestations of emotion that thrive on negativity; the more pain and suffering around them, the more they multiply.”

_BS._ Vani hissed from his perch on Sora’s head.  _ They know nothing.  _ The flood still had no physical weight, but Sora had learned to recognize his presence even when not in direct line of sight. Plus, Hikari was staring at him, though thankfully said nothing. Somehow she could see Vani even though the others couldn’t.

“What do you mean?” Sora asked before thinking. Luckily, the question could also apply to the general conversation.

“Was that not clear enough?” Yen Sid asked. Sora wasn’t sure if he meant it to sound condescending or not.

“Er. Nevermind,” Sora said quickly as Vani snickered.

_ Careful, Sora, or they’ll think you’ve gone nutters. _

Sora’s eyebrow twitched in annoyance but he managed to avoid reacting otherwise. Vani tended to default to a mocking, cocky attitude when he felt stressed, in an attempt to mask his actual feelings, just like Sora usually put on a happy face; Sora had to ignore the flood. Or, the so-called ‘dark being’. Vani was right; they didn’t know anything. Well, okay, they did know a little, as he had been formed of darkness, thus a ‘dark being’. But that didn’t mean he was bad! Vani had explained to Sora what happened with Ventus and Xehanort. It would have been tough to believe if Sora hadn’t seen all sorts of formerly-unbelievable things in the past few years. Vani claimed he didn’t regret his choices, but the way Sora saw it, many of those choices wouldn’t have been made without Xehanort’s manipulations. It reminded Sora of Riku, actually: Riku had been manipulated by Maleficent and Ansem into doing things, but he still kept trying to take full responsibility. Of course there was an attitude difference—namely, guilt was something Riku had in droves but did not seem to be an emotion Vani understood—but it was close enough. Sora was sure Vani could be on their side… unless the others were as unyielding as Vani claimed (in which case Sora planned to side with Vani, not stupid Yen Sid and his predjudices). But they had accepted Riku, and he had plenty of darkness. Not that Sora was going to outright tell them what was going on, though. He had a feeling he ought to keep it secret for now, and Vani agreed.

“Sora, are you paying attention?” someone said in a warble, then Sora felt a sharp pain on his head.

“Ow! What the fuck!” Sora said, grabbing his head and glaring at Donald, not bothering to hide his anger like he usually did. “What the bloody hell was that for!?”

“Language!” chided… possibly everyone but Riku, whom it looked like Mickey was trying to stop from punching the duck.

Oh, and Hikari, who asked “What’s fuck?”, which no one replied to.

“Well, sorry for using foul language when someone freaking assaults me!” Sora yelled.

_ Hey, calm down. _

“Wak! I just tapped you! Stop being overly dramatic!”

“That was more than just a tap,” Riku hissed. “Why the hell would you do that?”

“Well I wouldn’t have to if he paid attention!”

“He doesn’t pay attention half the time! How often do you do this?!”

“Gawrsh, Riku,” Goofy said. “Donald does that to everyone; it’s no big deal.”

_ Can I murder them? _

“What? No, don’t do that,” Sora muttered to Vani, unheard by the others due to the volume of the argument. The sudden interruption had helped Sora stop the anger enough to remove the rabbit and thorny spinning-top hiding under a low table, which thankfully no one else had noticed due to their focus on arguing.

_ Tsk. You know I can’t anyway…  _

“Sora, how often does Donald do this?” Riku asked, swerving to look at him.

Sora shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. Goofy’s right: it’s not a big deal.”

_ Idiot. In what world is getting hurt by people not a big deal? _

“Not a big deal? Sora! This is… this is abuse, plain and simple!” Riku accused.

_ He’s not wrong. _

“He does it to everyone, you heard what Goofy said,” Sora argued.

_ Seriously?  _ Vani jumped off Sora to sit on the corner of the nearby desk.  _ You told me that friends don’t cause others pain.  _

Hikari, upset by the loud arguing, began to cry loudly, further increasing the tension in the room. 

“Sora! Look what you did!” Donald scolded, apparently blaming Sora for the girl crying, which sparked Sora’s anger again.

_ Sora. You need to Calm. The Fuck. Down. Now. _

“Me?! You’re blaming me for this!? You’re just as at fault!” Sora exclaimed, glaring at Donald.

“I’m not the one being overdramatic!” Donald retorted.

_ Sora. This isn’t going to end well if you keep arguing. _

“Seriously!? You’ve got to be kidding me!” Sora yelled over Hikari’s loud wailing, then turned towards Vani. “And you shut up!”

“What? Sora, who are you talking to?” Riku asked worriedly.

Sora froze. “Um. Everyone!” he declared. “There’s too much yelling. Let’s just get back to whatever was being discussed, okay?”

“Hmph. See? Overly dramatic,” Donald grumbled, though along with the others looked towards Yen Sid, who had been frowning slightly.

Sora couldn’t believe that actually worked. Well, somewhat. Riku was giving him a look Sora knew to mean ‘we’ll talk later’, but everyone else miraculously seemed convinced.

“The being is called ‘Vanitas’,” Yen Sid said, picking up from where he’d left off. Riku appeared to be sounding the name out, frowning as though he were working on a puzzle—had Sora accidentally said Vani’s name aloud where Riku could hear it? It was a possibility; Sora should have been more careful about when and where he spoke to Vani. Yen Sid continued, “If he is around and active again, it is very possible Xehanort is too, or will be soon.”

Sora frowned. “But isn’t Xehanort gone? Both Ansem and Xemnas are defeated.”

_ And if he isn’t, I’ll murder him myself. _

“That is correct,” Yen Sid answered. “They are defeated. But Vanitas was a fiercely loyal servant to Xehanort. He will most likely try to either resurrect him or continue in his footsteps, attempting to construct the χ-blade.”

_ Seriously? That’s seriously what they think of me? If I’d had anywhere else to go, I’d have slit Xehanort’s throat in his sleep. ‘Fiercely loyal’ my ass. _

Sora couldn’t help but snicker slightly at Vani’s response, what Yen Sid said about Xehanort possibly being back briefly slipping his mind.

“Sora, do you find this funny?” Yen Sid asked, narrowing his eyes at Sora.

Sora gulped. “N-no, sir!”

“Wak! What’s that?” Donald gasped, pointing to something near the door. It looked like some bizarre cross between a toad and a turtle, red with a green shell and roughly double donald’s size, and had some sort of squiggly appendages wiggling around that could be arms, maybe. The eyes were on stalks, and on top of the snout above a wide mouth with a green tongue hanging out was a certain symbol...

“Oh no!” Mickey shouted. “Unversed!” He drew his keyblade. Everyone else but Yen Sid and Sora drew their weapons, too, the former because he liked leaving things to others and the latter because, well, he had summoned it.

“Sora,” Riku said, giving Sora a nudge as he was just staring at it in wide-eyed surprise.

“Right,” Sora said, drawing his keyblade but otherwise not moving.

_ Since you weren’t directly arguing with anyone, it won’t attack unless people attack it. Draw it back before they have a chance to fight. You can do it, you’ve done it—ooooh, too late, they’re attacking. Well, come on, before they kill it. _

Sora heard Vani’s words, but despite vigorous efforts could not manage to calm down this time. In fact, the opposite was happening, as Sora’s thoughts raced and he began getting more and more anxious and panicked that they’d figure it out, see that he was the problem… what would they do once they found out? Exile Sora? Lock him up? Destroy him? Sora cringed in slight pain as one of the unversed was taken out… he said ‘one’ and not ‘it’ because there were about six more of varying types now.

“I help!” Hikari exclaimed, wobbling towards the battle, keyblade in hand. Sora grabbed her.

_ Get yourself under control! _

“I’m trying!” Sora said under his breath, then cringed as another shock of pain spasmed through him, struggling to hold onto Hikari .

This wasn’t working. There was too much chaos. Sora had to get away. He could claim he suddenly had to use the bathroom or something. But then Hikari would try to fight...

“Hey, Sora, you can help any day now!” Donald squawked, noticing he wasn’t fighting.

“Seriously, Donald?!” Sora proclaimed. “Do you not see me trying to stop a toddler from fighting?!”

“Use a bind spell on her!”

“What? I’m not using a bind spell on a little kid!” Sora argued. Was Donald being serious?! Two more turtle-toad unversed popped up.

_ Hey, what did I just say about calming down?! _

“Doggy!” Hikari proclaimed, wriggling out of Sora’s arms and happily waddling over to Vani. Huh. Apparently the girl had taken a liking to him. Sora began to reach for her.

_ I’ll watch the kid, you just focus on getting your emotions under control! _

Sora cringed in pain again. It was impossible to gain control in such an environment… oh! Of course. Leaving was a good idea. A quieter spot might help… Sora ran right through the battle and out the door, vaguely noting that the unversed had ignored his presence. One may have even moved out of his way. Well. That would be rather obvious, wouldn’t it? Fuck. Well, Donald suggested Sora help; removing himself from the situation would do so.

“Sora!” Riku called, following behind him.

_ Running will only make things worse, stupid. _

Sora stumbled slightly as another sharp slash of pain moved through him, then cried out as another sharper wave of pain crashed over; two taken out at once. Sora tripped, tumbling down the stairs until he reached a landing. He lay where he landed, on his side, breathing heavily as Riku caught up to him.

“Sora!” Riku said in a panic, falling to his knees. “Curaga!” Healing vines engulfed Sora, taking care of all the bruises from the tumble, and he helped Sora sit up.

“Th-thanks, Riku,” Sora said gratefully, then winced in pain again as another unversed was defeated. How many were there now?

“Sora? What’s wrong? Did the spell not work right?”

Sora shook his head. “No, that’s not—hah—it,” he replied, gasping in the middle as another wave of pain hit. “It’s… I… I don’t know how to—hah—how to stop it…”

_ You do know how to stop it. _

“Take that!” Kairi could be heard yelling in the distance, cheering as she downed something while Hikari squealed in delight. Sora winced again in pain.

Riku blinked, then looked up where fighting could still be heard, then back at Sora, who had started to tear up, and then back there. Sora shook slightly in Riku’s arms; he wasn’t sure when Riku had managed to snake around him.

“Are those… did you… are you getting hurt when we attack them?” Riku asked quietly in dawning realization as he attempted to look Sora in the eyes.

“Only when they’re defeated,” Sora said meekly, keeping his eyes on the ground. “Vani says they’ll go away if I can calm down, but—hah—that’s difficult to d-do when—hah—when—”

_ Oooh, so much for keeping me hidden. Well, you tried I guess. _

Riku put a hand to Sora’s lips. “Shhh. Don’t say anything else; I got the idea. Wait here.”

“Wait!” Sora called, grabbing Riku’s wrist as the silverette stood. “How much of an i—hah—idea do you have?”

“The unversed are coming from you, not him, right?”

“Yeah, they’re mine,” Sora confirmed with certainty.

“Then I’m only going to tell them that fighting the unversed hurts you. It’s your choice whether to tell them more. But we are talking about this later, okay?”

Sora nodded, then gasped in pain, stronger than anything before. He shivered slightly.

“Wahoo, three at once!” Goofy cheered in the distance.

“Sora?” Riku said, kneeling down next to him again in panic.

Sora caught his breath. “I’ll be fine.”

“Okay… I’ll be right back, wait here,” Riku said, as Sora winced again.

“W-wait,” Sora called, grabbing Riku’s sleeve. “Riku, I d-don’t know if I can c-calm down enough to stop—hah—to s-stop them forming,” Sora realized.

Riku kneeled again and put his hands on Sora’s shoulders. “Okay,” the silverette said gently. “Is there any way I can help?”

Sora closed his eyes; he was feeling sore, lingering ghosts of the stronger flashes of pain now cloaking him. Was there a way Riku could help? Actually… “Use a sleep spell,” Sora concluded. He couldn’t use one on himself; it didn’t work that way. “Or-hah-sleepga might work better? Dunno if you can use sleep magic on that level. But I do know if I sleep they’ll stop spawning.”

“You sure?” Riku asked worriedly.

Sora nodded, eyes still closed. “T-they're based—hah—on emotions.”

“Okay,” Riku decided. “Sleepra,” he whispered in Sora’s ear, and Sora felt his eyes grow heavy. He fell forwards, Riku catching him in his arms as Sora’s vision faded to black.

  
  


∞♣♥☼♥♣∞

Sora stood in his heart station. Vani hopped over to it from his, in human form; before Sora couldn’t see the station, but if he looked closely he now could tell it was there, shrouded in darkness. Ventus, Roxas, and whoever-the-girl-was’s hearts similarly lurked, but they weren’t yet capable of leaving their stations, although they could watch Sora from within them. 

“Well, shit,” Vani said. “That’s one hella loyal boyfriend you got there, trusting you enough to keep it secret that you’ve been friendly with a dark being that put some of your friends through hell.” 

“More than just friendly, considering you’re literally in my heart,” Sora said with a chuckle. “But, he knows I wouldn’t trust just anyone. If I didn’t believe you were redeemable, I would have told someone.”

“Okay, one, you started talking to and trusting me before you even heard my story. Secondly, no, you would not have told someone. Thirdly, you tried giving freaking Xemnas a chance to redeem himself before your battle.”

“Eh, details.”

Vani quieted for a moment. “… So you really trust me?” he eventually said. “Even though I’m a dark being that’s done horrible things?”

“What, are you trying to convince me otherwise or something? Yes. We’re friends.”

Vani tilted his head in a thoughtful expression. “Friends, huh? You keep saying that… I’ve never had a friend before.”

“Well, now you do!” Sora declared cheerfully.

Vani was quiet again for a while before saying, “I don’t know how to be a friend.”

Sora laughed. “Sure you do! You’ve been being one.”

“I have?” Vani looked plain confused.

“Yup!”

“Well, okay, then,” the noirette said, only sounding like he half believed Sora’s claim. “I guess we’re friends then.”

Sora beamed. “Great!” 

“...Right. Anyway, so, what do you plan to do now?”

“Huh?”

Vani rolled his eyes. “Seriously? About them knowing about the unversed! Riku said he’ll keep it a secret that I’m involved, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they figure it out anyway. I’m the only one who’s ever been able to summon them, until now.”

“Oh, right,” Sora said, sitting down cross-legged. Vani copied him. “Um…” Sora thought. “I still want to try to keep it a secret. You heard what Yen Sid was saying. I’ll just pretend I don’t know anything about you.”

Vani scoffed. “Well, good luck with that, then. Still, you managed to hide things this long… suppose we’ll just have to see what happens.”

“Suppose so.”

“Anyway, time to wake up before Riku freaks out again.”

Sora was abruptly ejected from the heart station and blinked open his eyes. He was in Yen Sid’s office, laying on the ground near the wall, head in Riku’s lap. The silverette was leaning against the wall with his eyes closed, but clearly awake as he was running his hand through Sora’s hair.

“Riku?” Sora mumbled.

“Sora! You’re awake!” Riku breathed in relief, opening his eyes to look at Sora. “Thought I used too strong a spell again,” Riku admitted. Sora inwardly sighed; he’d have to talk to Riku about that later, so he didn’t feel bad. Neither time had been Riku’s fault; Sora just wanted to talk to Vani.

Sora sat up, but Riku prevented him from doing more than that, wanting Sora to rest. Sora gazed around the room; all eyes were on him.

Yen Sid’s expression was angrier than Sora had ever seen it. He hadn’t known the wizard was capable of such an expression, honestly; usually when angry the wizard’s eyebrows would be slightly creased and mouth slightly turned down with barely narrowed eyes, but all three of those things were now pronounced.

“Sora,” Yen Sid said, voice tense. “Stand up,” he demanded. 

Sora, feeling numb again, reluctantly stood, Riku insisting on helping. They walked forwards a bit to join the rest of the group, holding hands.

Yen Sid asked, voice dripping tension, “Why did you not tell anyone you were creating such beings?”

Sora bit his lip. “Um. I didn’t want to worry anyone. Besides, I thought I could control my emotions enough that they’d stop.”

“They are tied to your emotions?”

Sora nodded. “At first only I could see them though. Thought I was hallucinating…”

“When did this begin? Was there a specific trigger?” Yen Sid demanded.

Sora thought back. When had he seen the first one? Oh. “I don’t know,” Sora lied.

“Sora. Lying isn’t becoming of a keyblade wielder.”

“I’m not lying,” Sora lied again, shifting nervously and trying to bite down his budding anxiousness. 

“Sora,” Yen Sid practically growled, and Sora took a step back.

“I’d really rather not talk about it,” Sora said earnestly, hoping someone in the room would get the hint if not the wizard.

Thankfully Riku realized. He stepped next to Sora and put his arm around his shoulder. “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to,” he said gently.

“Riku,” Yen Sid said. “That is not your decision.”

“You’re right,” Riku said firmly. “It’s Sora’s decision. What triggered it is not relevant. What is important is that they appear during times of high emotion and stress.”

“What triggered it could be important,” Yen Sid argued. “The only one who could summon them previously was Vanitas. If he’s possessing you—”

“He’s not possessing me!” Sora said loudly.

_ That’s for sure. I’d have never been dumb enough to get found out. _

“You shut up,” Sora said, glaring at the (invisible) flood that had manifested to the side of them.

The room was silent. Oops.

_ Case and point. _

“Sora, who are you speaking to?” Yen Sid asked in suspicion, now speaking in a more level and wary voice.

“No one,” Sora lied.

Donald, arms crossed, scoffed and warbled something that sounded like “Bologna.”

“Sora, lying is a bad thing to do,” Goofy said, sounding disappointed.

_ Probably should just tell them. Tear the bandaid off. _

“Ugh. Fine. Turns out Roxas isn’t the only one in my heart. Ventus and Vanitas are chilling in there too,” Sora revealed, still with an edge to his voice. “Vani figured out how to make a projection I can see, so he can talk to me.”

Everyone but Kairi exclaimed in surprise.

Riku looked at the redhead. “Wait, why aren’t you surprised?”

Kairi shrugged. “Naminé says there were a couple others there when she sorted through your memories. She wasn’t sure who though.”

“And you’re just telling us this now!?” Donald exclaimed.

“Well she only just told me now. Apparently she forgot to mention it before.”

“You can talk to her?” Sora asked in wonder. “Roxas still won’t respond,”—except for that one time Sora was not going to speak of— “but Vani says he watches.”

“Vani,” Yen Sid said flatly. “You gave a being of pure darkness a nickname.”

“Um. In my defense, he looked like a flood when I first saw him, so. Yeah.”

“A flood?” Kairi asked.

“The unversed that look like pointy shadows,” Sora clarified. Vani laughed at that description, then pouted at the next part: “Vani looks like a larger-than-normal one outside my heart station. It’s actually kinda adorable.”

“Adorable,” Yen Sid said, flatly again. “Sora, Vanitas is a dangerous dark being, not a pet.”

_ Oh hey, someone here actually gets it. _

“I know that,” Sora said. A regular flood appeared at his feet, belying his attempt at a calm demeanor in spite of growing anxiety. Sora ignored it.

“Then you must know that it must be extracted and destroyed posthaste.”

Sora blinked, then narrowed his eyes. It? What the hell? “No. HE is staying here until HIS heart is recovered… along with Ventus’s,” he added the latter as an afterthought. “And Roxas and Xion too.” Wait, Xion? The girl had a name?

The flood pawed at Sora and Sora picked it up in his arms, cuddling it.

“What? Who’s Xion?” Mickey asked, confused. 

Riku gasped. “XION is there too?! How?”

“She must have somehow developed a heart,” Kairi—wait, no; not Kairi? The presence was different—said. “It shouldn’t have been possible otherwise… apparently both nobodies and replicas work a lot differently than we previously thought.”

“...Naminé?” Riku asked in a whisper.

Kairi—no, Naminé—nodded. “Yes. Kairi is allowing me to speak. I did not disappear as expected, and neither did Roxas or, apparently, Xion—whom everyone should have forgotten about completely… Riku, you knew?”

Riku shook his head. “No, I only just remembered her when Sora said her name.”

“We can discuss nobodies and replicas later,” Yen Sid said firmly. “Right now we must deal with Vanitas’s existence. It cannot be permitted to continue existing.”

_ Ugh, he’s such a bastard… If I had a physical body… _

“HE can and will be existing!” Sora practically growled, starting to like Vani’s idea of killing the wizard. Not that he could, even if he really wanted to. Which he didn’t, but the sentiment was definitely there.

“Sora, you heard what it has done, what it is. It is unnatural. A being of pure darkness mustn’t remain alive.”

“Yes, I heard what HE did! And guess what? Things are NOT as black-and-white as you seem to think! Darkness isn’t always evil; isn’t Riku proof enough of that? Why can’t Vani use his darkness for good, too?”

“The circumstances are different—”

“No, they’re not! Vani was manipulated by Xehanort, just as others have been. He should at least be given a chance, now that he’s free of his influence.”

“Sora. This is non-negotiable!” Yen Sid said, voice booming.

Sora’s anger rose to match. “Damn right it isn’t! Noone is going to lay a hand on him!”

About a dozen very angry rabbit unversed along with another turtle-toad popped into existence.

“Enough!” Yen Sid said, using some sort of thunder spell that took out the entire group at once, including the flood Sora had been holding.

“Gah!” Sora doubled over and nearly collapsed in pain, blacking out for a few seconds as the shock of that many unversed being defeated at once surged through, exponentially stronger than any before.

“Sora!” Riku called, catching Sora as he wobbled a little, keeping him steady. He turned to glare at Yen Sid. “Was that really necessary!?”

“Of course,” Yen Sid said calmly. “They are dangerous creatures that must be destroyed.”

“No, they only attack when attacked, as I told you before,” Riku said, voice tense. “And Sora can make them vanish if given a chance to calm down.”

“Sora should not be forming them in the first place,” Yen Sid pointed out curtly. “If it is indeed Sora forming them, it may be an effect from harboring Vanitas’s heart, his ability transferring. The issue ought to reside once the being is removed.”

“Stop referring to Vani as some object!” Sora objected. “He has a heart! He’s his own person!”

_ Sora, it’s no use arguing. His mind’s made up. _

“But…”

_ No buts. You won’t be able to make him understand. You also might want to leave before he decides to force things. _

“That’s a good point,” Sora muttered. Yen Sid really would force things. Sora grabbed Riku’s hand. “Come on, we’re going,” he said, pulling him towards the door. Riku went willingly; it seemed he had had the same idea.

The door didn’t budge. Riku let go of Sora’s hand to summon his keyblade and turned towards the wizard, apparently ready to fight for their freedom, which was definitely not a good idea. Everyone else stood back a little, looking wary of the potential confrontation.

“You are not leaving until that beast is gone,” Yen Sid said firmly, ignoring the keyblade pointing at him.

“Let us out,” Sora demanded, also drawing his keyblade although he didn't raise it or turn around, voice terse as he tried not to summon any more unversed. He kicked the door.

_ Summon a dark corridor. _

Sora scrunched his brow. “Huh? I can’t do that,” Sora said in confusion.

_ If you can summon unversed, you can make a corridor. _

“How?”

_ Hold out your hand and focus on forming one. I’ll try to help, though not sure if I can or not. Just, try. _

Sora held out his hand and focused on making a portal. To his complete shock, a portal formed right in front of him, along with six or seven floods. “Whoa! It actually worked!” Sora proclaimed, not moving.

_ Idiot! Run, before the wizard forces it closed! _

“Right,” Sora said, darting into it as Yen Sid shouted something and sent a beam of light towards it. Riku attempted to follow, but before he could the spell closed the portal.


	17. Chapter 17

“Sora!” Riku called as the portal closed. He clenched his fists, one still holding his keyblade, and stomped his foot in frustration. “Fuck.” At least those unversed Sora had summoned with the portal had vanished after Sora had gone through, preventing Yen Sid from destroying them and causing Sora more pain. What was wrong with that wizard?!

“Language!” sounded a voice that Riku took a second to place as Jiminy’s. He always forgot about the cricket’s existence.

Riku held out his hand, gathering dark energy in an attempt to form a portal to follow Sora. A faint outline formed only to immediately fizzle out. Riku tried again, only to get worse results.

“Stop that this instance!” Yen Sid demanded. “There will be no more dark portals formed in this tower!”

“I can’t even use them anymore anyway,” Riku muttered bitterly, dismissing his keyblade—brandishing a weapon would not help things. He swerved around to leave, only to find the door still sealed shut. “Let me out; I have to find Sora,” Riku said firmly. He tried to bite down panic; he was worried Sora might do something similar to what he’d nearly done just a day prior.

“And just how will you do such?”

“He was scared and panicking; he’s going to instinctually go somewhere he feels safe. So I’m going to look everywhere he feels safe.”

“That will not work,” Yen Sid said. “That boy is possessed; he will go to wherever Vanitas wants.”

“He is NOT possessed,” Riku protested with absolute certainty. He wasn’t. Riku knew Sora. Sora may have a dark being in his heart whom he’d miraculously befriended, but Riku could tell that Sora was still in control of himself. Riku was willing to accept Sora’s analysis of Vanitas more than that of a clearly closed-minded elderly wizard who was stuck in his ways.

“Riku, he is summoning dark creatures and forming dark portals.”

“So? He has some darkness in him then, big deal. I have darkness in me too. He can learn to control it,” Riku reasoned. He also suspected that perhaps those unversed weren’t as dark as everyone seemed to think, seeing as they were based on emotions, but that was an argument for a different time.

“I agree,” Mickey jumped in. “This situation isn’t black-and-white.”

Yen Sid turned towards the mouse. “Mickey, you are being naïve. You know very well how horrid a being Vanitas is.”

“Yes, but I also trust Sora’s judgement,” Mickey said resolutely. “If he thinks Vanitas can be redeemed, we ought to give him a chance.”

“That is ludicrous.”

Riku scoffed. “Fine, think that. Regardless, I’m still going to go find Sora.”

The wizard paused for a moment. “I see I cannot stop you,” he concluded. “I urge you to be cautious. Vanitas can be viciously cunning.”

“I told you, it’s Sora,” Riku said tersely.

“I agree!!” Kairi suddenly chimed in. “So does Naminé. That’s Sora.”

“We’ll help find him, too,” Goofy offered. 

Riku considered that. He didn’t like the two very much, especially the duck (whom he often had a strong urge to murder), but he needed the help. “Okay. You guys might know places he’d go better than I would, as you travelled with him a lot.”

“Hmm,” Goofy pondered. “Donald, where might he go, do you think?”

“Obviously the Islands!” Donald decided.

Riku shook his head. “No, not the Islands. He doesn’t feel comfortable there anymore.”

“Wak!” Donald appeared shocked. “Why not?” he demanded.

“Yeah, that’s where he wanted to return to his whole journey,” Goofy offered.

Riku bit his lip, pondering how much he should say.

Kairi decided for him. “‘There was an incident. Sora got hurt; it probably contributed to the unversed beginning to spawn. He won’t want to go there.”

“Ah, yes,” Yen Sid said stoically. “Before you leave, that needs to be discussed. The trigger for the unversed initially spawning may play a vital role in helping prevent such in the future, if it is as you say and he is not possessed. If, however, he is, which is more likely, knowing what led to such and solving it may help Sora find the strength to be able to overcome the possession.”

“It’s solved as much as it can be,” Riku said coldly. He didn’t want to betray Sora’s trust any more than necessary. Right now the issue was Sora’s emotions themselves, not anything that happened. Negative emotions that had must have been festering for quite some time, which Sora had kept hidden from everyone, including thoughts of… Riku didn’t want to dwell on that too much, lest he have another panic attack—it was a miracle he wasn’t currently having one.

“Riku,” Kairi—no, Naminé? Riku couldn’t tell; he wondered how often they switched—said quietly. “The information is easy to find—It’s in all the papers. I don’t think Sora truly expects it to remain secret.”

Riku cringed. It was a fair point. Still…

“Gosh, did you say it’s in the papers?” Mickey said worriedly. “It must be bad, then. No wonder he didn’t want to talk about it.”

“It started before that, though,” Riku divulged.

“Before that?” Kairi asked.

Riku nodded. “Yeah, smaller incidents he’d been trying to hide. Remember that day he skipped the second half of the school day and we found him on the beach?”

“You mean the second day we returned to school?” Kairi clarified. “Oh,” she realised. “He had a black eye…”

Goofy gasped. “Gawrsh, are you saying someone was hurting Sora?”

Riku nodded. Might as well say it. “Yeah, the same group who assaulted him.”

“Group?” Donald squawaked. “Is there a new evil organization around?!”

Riku sighed. “No. Just your generic homophobic high-school bullies.”

“Homophobic?” Goofy asked. “Why would they attack Sora, then?”

“Yeah, Sora’s not gay,” Donald said.

Riku felt himself pale as he realized they had been unaware. Did he just accidentally out Sora to people he didn’t want to tell? Or was Sora going to tell them, just didn’t get around to it yet? Probably—and hopefully—the latter, as Sora hadn’t bothered to hide his affection for Riku here, nor had Riku attempted to hide his for Sora. Sora even held 

Riku’s hand, and Riku had been subconsciously stroking the brunette’s hair; surely it was obvious the two were together? Were the duck and the dog just that dense?

“I’m going to go look for Sora now,” Riku said, hoping to divert the subject. “Whoever’s going, let’s go.” He turned to the door, then his heart stopped as he realized something. “Wait. Where’s Hikari?”

Everyone looked around the room, finding no hint of her.

“Fuck,” Riku swore. “Okay, I am DEFINITELY leaving now,” Riku said. “Seeing as we’re now missing a keyblade-wielding TODDLER in addition to my boyfriend.” Riku only realized what he said after he said it; he wondered if the ones who didn’t know caught the word he’d used for Sora. Well, whatever; right now finding Sora was the issue… hopefully having Hikari with him would stop him from doing anything drastic...

Donald, Goofy, and Kairi/Naminé moved towards the door too, all planning to go with Riku, but Mickey decided to stay behind. “I’m going to do some research,” Mickey said. “See if I can find anything about hearts taking refuge in each other and on unversed, or things similar to them.”

“I’ll help with that,” Jiminy said, to Riku’s relief. He didn’t very much like how the cricket always lectured and corrected people. He was supposed to be Pinocchio’s conscience, not everyone’s!

The door still did not open. “We still have not fully discussed the matter of what caused the unversed to start appearing in the first place,” Yen Sid reminded them. 

Riku resisted the urge to roll his eyes. The wizard really irked him. “As we were just saying, he was being harassed by some homophobic bullies. Which has been resolved, as they were arrested after seriously hurting him, so clearly him stopping summoning them isn’t contingent upon the initial trigger being resolved.” That was a bit of a simplification, and it certainly was not fully resolved as there were apparently more bullies around if Sora’s locker had been any indication, plus the whole issue of Sora’s general mental state, but Riku didn’t feel like detailed explanations. “Now, please, let us out!” He really really really needed to find Sora and Hikari before one of them got injured… or worse.

“Then what is it contingent upon?” Yen Sid asked, not dropping the matter. “You know more than you are saying, don’t you?”

Riku tried not to shout. “As I told you earlier, they’re based on negative emotions. If he’s panicking, a lot of them will start spawning. If he can manage to control his emotions and remain calm, he can stop them.”

“Aww, but Sora’s almost always happy!” Donald said.

“Yeah!” Goofy agreed. “I’m sure he just needs a hug!”

Riku couldn’t control his anger any more. “Are you two idiots?!” he shouted at the duck and the dog. “Maybe he looked happy, but if you paid any attention you’d have noticed the stress he was under! He hides his emotions. Pretends to be happy because he doesn’t want people to worry or to burden them with his problems. He told me how you always simply told him to ‘be happy’ if he was feeling down. That’s the exact OPPOSITE of what you need to do when someone’s feeling depressed! Maybe if you didn’t do that, Sora wouldn’t have shoved everything away and let it build until he became freaking sui—you know what, we’re wasting time, just let me out of here!” He turned to the door and kicked it, pissed at himself for revealing so much. Sora trusted him, yet now Riku was just spilling everything. Ugh.

“Riku,” Mickey said sharpy. “What were you just about to say?”

“Nothing, forget it,” Riku said, glaring at the door with his arms crossed, well aware that he sounded like a stubborn child.

Jiminy spoke up then. “Why, it sounded like you nearly said suicidal. Surely that must be an exaggeration? This is Sora we’re talking about. It’s not conducive to civil discussions when one gets emotional and exaggerates.”

Riku swerved around and glared at the cricket. “Why the hell would someone exaggerate that?”

“It must be Vanitas’s influence,” Yen Sid concluded, apparently still intent on blaming him for everything.

Riku sighed, too exasperated to maintain such virtriolant anger. Besides, if he kept it up, darkness would start seeping out, which would be the opposite of a good thing to happen at the moment. “Just, let me out so I can find him before he does something stupid,  _ please. _ ”

“Very well,” Yen Sid decided curtly, and the door flew open, nearly hitting Riku in the face.

  
  


∞♣♥☼♥♣∞

“Ummm. I didn’t mean to go here,” Sora admitted, looking around. “Where is here, anyway…? Did you bring us here, Vani?” They appeared to be a forest full of red thorns.

_ No, I didn’t bring you here. You would have gone to whatever place you were thinking of when you entered the portal. _

“Oh. I, er, wasn’t thinking of anything specific,” Sora admitted.

_...Well, that’d explain it, then. _

“Huh?”

_ It defaulted to the Realm of Darkness. _

“This is the Realm of Darkness? It looks very different from what I remember,” Sora commented. “Last time it was a beach.”

_ There’s a lot of different locations besides the beach. _

“Well, let’s get out then.” Sora raised his arm and tried to make a portal out.

Nothing happened.

_ Tsk. Figures you’d only have it in you once. _

Sora growled in frustration, and flung his arm out again, focusing on the darkness. Still, nothing happened.

_ Hey, relax, it might just be this spot. Some places are more difficult to create portals at than others, especially here. The Realm of Darkness doesn’t like letting people go. If we find a place where the barrier between realms is weaker, it should work. _

“Ugh. Okay then, where would we find a place like that?”

_ No fucking clue. _

“Seriously?!”

_ If we find a place like that, I’ll let you know. _

“Fine, let’s go then,” Sora said, and began walking in a random direction, Vani following in his flood form.

_ Hey! Watch out! _ Vani yelled after a few minutes, leaping to the side of Sora and slashing a shadow heartless, which retreated.

Sora stared at the flood in awe. “Vani! Your corpse-al now!”

_ You mean corporeal? _ Vani asked, chuckling a little.

“Yeah, that,” Sora muttered, reminded painfully of Riku, who was probably panicking now. “Anyway, so you’re stronger! How? Is it because we’re in the Realm of Darkness?”

Vani shrugged, which was a weird expression to see on a flood.  _ Beats me. _

Sora started walking again, Vani following. “I can’t believe Yen Sid kept insisting I was possessed, even when everyone confirmed I wasn’t. He’s such an ass.”

_ Well, I am darkness incarnate. Who’s to say I won’t possess you? _

“You won’t,” Sora said with confidence.

_ And you know that how? Pretty sure I could if I tried. _

“Because I trust you. You’re better than that.”

Vani was quiet for a moment.  _ Not sure about the ‘better than that’ bit, but you’re right, I won’t possess you. Hell if I know why, though! _

“Because you’re a good person.”

_ Sora. I’m literally the opposite of good, and not a person. _

“Your normal form looks like a person, you talk like a person, you act like a person, and you have a heart. You’re a person. Simple.”

_ Only half a heart, _ Vani pointed out.

“No, pretty sure it’s a full heart. It’s why you couldn’t merge with Ventus, right? You both grew more than half a heart, and combining would make more than a whole heart, which you can’t have. Basic math.”

_ Theoretically, surviving with half a heart should have been impossible too. It’s only thanks to you we did. _

“Aww, Vani, you flatter me!” Sora proclaimed, feeling bubbly for no discernable reason. He picked up Vani to hug him, which he was pleased to see he could do now.

_ Hey! Stop that! _ Vani grumbled, wiggling out of Sora’s grip.  _ I’m not a pet! _

Someone giggled from behind the two, and Sora spun around. “Fuck,” he loudly proclaimed.

“What’s fuck?” Hikari asked.

“That’s a bad word to say,” Sora told her, trying not to panic at the fact that Riku’s baby sister was trapped with him in the Realm of Darkness. 

“Okay. Me hold not-doggy?” Hikari asked, pointing at Vani.

“His name is Vani,” Sora said, realizing she’d never actually been told that.

“Okay! Me hold Vani?”

Vani sighed.  _ Fine, hand me to her. _

Sora handed Vani to Hikari, who squealed in delight as she clutched him tightly, falling down onto her butt as she lost stability—the flood was roughly as large as her, after all.

Sora took a deep breath in an attempt to stay calm, sitting on the ground too while Hikari cuddled Vani. Okay, so he was in the Realm of Darkness with a keyblade-wielding toddler that could barely walk and a being claiming to be darkness incarnate in the form of a small spindly cat. On top of that, his emotions were causing monsters to appear that hurt him when they were defeated. No big deal.

“Hey, is there a way I can control the unversed?” Sora wondered. “I don’t mean making them appear and disappear, I mean give them commands and stuff. Like, can I tell them to stop attacking people or run away?”

_ Hmmm. Good question. _

“What do you mean, good question?! Did you never try that before?”

_ Nope. I always summoned them with the intent to fight. Never even occurred to me to try to make them do other things. _

“Okay… then is there a way to summon them without getting emotional?”

_ Wouldn’t know; again, never tried. _

“Ugh, this is so frustrating!” Sora growled, annoyed. As if on cue, out popped a rabbit unversed. “Huh,” Sora said, looking at it in surprise. “I guess that works.” He stared at the rabbit for a moment, and it stared back. “Umm…” Sora tried to think of a command. “Sit.”

_ Sit? Seriously? You think—oh. Huh. _

The rabbit sat.

“Big-hand Bunny!” Hikari cheered, dropping Vani and hurrying over to pet the rabbit unversed.

_ It’s called a Hareraiser. _

“No. Big-hand Bunny!” Hikari insisted.

Sora laughed. “Well, looks like that’s it’s name now!”

Sora’s laughter caused the appearance of a small floating unversed that resembled a green hourglass-shaped vial with an orange stopper. The red marks that served as eyes were curved, as though it were happy, contrasting the other ones that had looked either angry or sad even when not acting like such.

_ Well, that’s new. Usually Vile Phials are purple. _

“Positive emotions can make them too?” Sora asked in surprise.

_ Wouldn’t know. I’m made of pure negativity. _

Sora frowned. “That’s not true.”

“Air bottle!” Hikari yelled, pointing excitedly at the unversed.

_ No, Vile Phial. _

“No! Air bottle!”

Sora laughed, causing a few more to appear, in a myriad of colors. “Looks like they’re called Air Bottles now, Vani!”

_ Hmph. Whatever… Wait. Why are they so rainbow? _

Sora shrugged. “I dunno. You know more about them than me.” He turned to the floating bottles. “You can go away now,” he said, and the bottles listened.

_ Huh. That was easier than expected. _

“Because I’m calm,” Sora said. “You can dismiss them when you’re calm, right? That’s what you said.”

_ Positive emotions can calm that easily? _

Sora shrugged. “I guess? Again, I know as much about it as you.”

_ I know shit about positive emotions. All negativity, remember? _

“I think you know more than you think,” Sora mused. Or maybe Sora knew less than he should. He often acted happy, and probably had been when he was younger, but lately it seemed that even his happiness had an underlying layer of something he couldn’t really define. Sadness, but not normal sadness… maybe Riku and his dad were right that Sora should see someone. Sora’s stomach rumbled.

Vani tilted his head.  _ When did you last eat? _

“Why do people keep asking me that?” Sora whined.

_ Maybe because you don’t eat unless prompted, which caused you to pass out? _

Sora sighed. “Yeah I guess that makes sense.” Add that to Sora’s list of faults. At this rate if he did see a doctor they’d assume it was some sort of eating disorder and commit him. Which, okay, maybe it could be classified as; Sora didn’t know much about such, other than what they learned in health class. Which, come to think of it, seemed to focus only on girls when it came to that stuff. Maybe boys couldn’t get them. Then again, Sora had always been teased about how girly he apparently was.

_ Well? When was it? _

“Seriously? We’re in the middle of the Realm of Darkness!” Sora yelled, feeling highly agitated now. “It doesn’t matter, even if I did remember, since people don’t need food here. It’s some sort of stasis-place or something… besides, even if it weren’t, I don’t have any food on me. I didn’t expect to travel, so I didn’t wear my magical clothing, which has food rations… I really should have though, since we weren’t on the Islands… ugh, I’m such an idiot! So stupid!”

_ Hey. Stop that. _

“Stop what?!”

_ Putting yourself down. It won’t help anything. _

Sora rolled his eyes. “You sound like Riku now. What, are you going to tell me it’s all not true, that I’m perfect how I am? Because I’m not! Not at all! I don’t know how the hell he can think so!”

_...Right. Well, while you take your anger out on everything, I’m gonna find the girl. _

“The girl?” Sora asked, freezing, all anger dissipating as he realized who Vani meant. Sora looked around. There were plenty of unversed, but no Hikari… “Great, something else I’ve fucked up on,” Sora mumbled as he trudged after Vani.

  
  
  


∞♣♥☼♥♣∞

“It’s hopeless,” Sora declared, falling to his knees next to a pillar of glowing blue rock; they’d left the forest to enter some valley full of such landforms. “It’s hopeless. We’ll never find her. If I ever get back to Riku, he’ll hate me for losing her.”

_ Then keep looking? _

“What’s the use?” Sora lamented, falling to his side and curling up, feeling empty again, surrounded by unversed he probably could tell to go away but didn’t bother to. A couple floods approached him, nuzzling Sora’s side, but Sora only closed his eyes in response and curled in on himself more.

_ Sora, get up. _ Vani prodded him with a pointy paw.

“No.”

_ So, what, you’re going to lie here forever, waste away into the darkness? _

“Yes.”

_ What the fuck. Why? _

“I don’t deserve to live,” Sora said miserably. “Might as well just fade into the darkness forever. It’s for the best.”

_ For the best?! No it’s not! Come on, get up!  _ Vani poked Sora again, slightly harder.

Sora remained quiet. It  _ was _ for the best. Everyone would be better off. Sora knew it. No more unversed, no more pathetically depressed Sora to bother everyone, no more alternating between pain and numbness. No downsides.

_ Hmph. Well, I’m going to go find the girl. You stay here. When I return, we’re getting out of here, and you’re getting help. Don’t do anything stupid. _ Vani turned around and scurried off, back towards the forest.

Sora considered getting up, going to find the beach; it’d be easier, falling into darkness there. He could just walk right into the dark water, into the abyss… Sora wondered what that’d be like. Would it be like drowning? Would it actually kill him? Or would it keep him in some dark, empty stasis, like when he’d briefly been turned into a heartless? Although the former was desirable, the latter wasn’t as appealing… but it’d still be preventing him from hurting other people, which was good. Yeah, Sora should do that… He couldn’t bring himself to move, though.

Maybe a swarm of heartless would find him. His unversed would fight to protect him, causing pain when inevitably defeated, but that was okay. That would leave Sora open for the heartless to attack and hopefully kill. It’d be painful, being torn apart by them, but necessary… Sora closed his eyes, feeling sleepy. Maybe he’d get lucky and not wake up.…


	18. Chapter 18

Riku paced back and forth in the GummiShip, trying not to panic. It’d been nearly a week since they started out. First they’d tried Radiant Garden, then they’d tried Olympus, then Twilight Town, all to no avail. Where could Sora be? He could be injured, or worse… they had to find Sora! And Hikari. Hopefully she was with Sora.

“Riku, you’re going to wear a hole in the floor,” Kairi said with a sigh.

Riku swerved around. “Well, I’m worried! Aren’t you?!” he yelled.

“Sora will be fine; he always is,” Kairi said patiently.

“No, he’s really not! He shouldn’t be left alone right now!”

“Wak!” Donald quacked. “You keep saying that, but won’t say why!”

Riku turned and glared at Donald. “I told you before we left.”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t make sense,” Goofy argued. “Sora isn’t like that. He’s usually happy.”

Riku stopped and put a hand on his forehead. “Gods, you all are idiots,” he said, exasperated. He knew he shouldn’t be taking his anger and upset out on them, but it was difficult not to!

“Hey! Don’t call us names!” Donald bristled. “You’re the idiot for thinking Sora could possibly think something like that!”

“Riku,” Kairi said quietly. “Did something happen?” 

Riku sighed. Kairi was more perceptive than anyone Riku knew, and unlike the duck and the dog believed Riku about this. She had been getting pretty worried about Sora, too. Riku debated what to say. They did need to know if they were searching for Sora, in case they found him in a similar situation they had to dissipate, but Sora might get mad if he knew Riku said anything… well, he didn’t need to go into full detail…

“Riku?” Kairi prodded at his silence.

“Yeah,” Riku admitted quietly, looking down at his hands. “Yeah, something happened. He… he didn’t actually attempt anything, but it was close. He… If I hadn’t gotten there when I did… It happened the night before we all left, just after I sent the letter. My dad was going to take him to see someone for… for emergency psychiatric care after school, but then we got summoned to Yen Sid’s instead.”

“That’s why you were so frightened when he ditched school that day,” Kairi whispered.

“Sora ditched school?” Goofy asked, surprised. Riku wondered if the dog had fully understood the implications of what he’d said.

“It must be Vanitas’s influence,” Donald decided, probably in reference to both.

“No. It’s not. I’m positive it's not,” Riku said adamantly. “I’m actually confident Vanitas has been trying to help Sora, based on how Sora’s been acting and some of the things he’s said. I can’t be 100% certain, but I trust Sora’s perception of him.”

“I trust him too,” Kairi said. “I would be able to tell if he had more darkness than he should. I am a Princess of Light, after all.” She put her fits on her hips and looked at Donald and Goofy. “Or does that not count for anything?”

Goofy nodded. “That’s good enough for me, Donald.”

Donald scoffed. “Fine. It’s not Vanitas’s influence, then—even IF he actually is as bad as you say!”

Riku resisted punching the duck. “Fine. If you won’t believe he’ll hurt himself that way, there’s also something else: he hasn’t been eating properly. By that, I mean he doesn’t eat at all unless we prompt him to—I’m starting to suspect it might be intentional, actually. It got so bad he passed out because of it.” A slight exaggeration, as it had been a combination of that, the alcohol, and the heat, but still. It’d contributed. Plus, there was a good chance it’d eventually have happened anyway.

“Wak!” Donald proclaimed. “But Sora loves to eat!”

“...Which is why it’s a major sign that he’s not feeling well,” Riku pointed out. “Anyway, so where else would he go?”

“Umm…” Donald said, putting a hand on his chin in thought as Goofy scratched his head.

“Wait…” Kairi said, seeming to realize something. “How do those dark portals work?”

“Huh?” Riku said, thrown by the question. “You think of a place as you enter, and then a corridor forms that leads there,” he explained.

“What about if you don’t think of a specific place?” Kairi asked. “He was in a huge panic, and that was the first time he used one, right?”

“Right… Oh! Duh!” Riku declared, smacking himself on the forehead. “The Realm of Darkness is where it defaults to! We should have checked there first!” Of course. Riku should have thought of that before. There was a much higher chance Sora would be there… and Riku actually felt slight relief at that, as it meant Sora wouldn’t pass out from hunger, at the very least, since it placed people in some sort of stasis-like state, where eating wasn’t necessary and whatnot. Plus, time worked funkily there, so it was probable Sora and Hikari had only been there for less than a day on their end… or, what felt like it to them, at least. Technically it was just perception of time that got messed up, not time itself. The main issue would be all the heartless there, but Riku was certain Sora could handle those, especially if the unversed helped, which Riku had a feeling they would.

“But Riku, we don’t know how to get there,” Goofy pointed out.

“We’ll find a way,” Riku stated, determined. “Let’s call Mickey; he might know how to get there.”

  
  


∞♣♥☼♥♣∞

Sora opened his eyes to find he was still in the Realm of Darkness and still very much alive. Damn. Why’d he wake up? Oh. A couple of floods were nudging him repeatedly. But why? Were they worried about him? Sora hadn’t known they—ngh! Sora gave a shout as a wave of pain shot through him.

“Don’t worry, I’ll save you!” came a female voice. Sora propped himself up on an elbow, sitting up slightly to see his unversed fighting a blue-haired woman clad in blue clothing wearing a cat-eared headband and a metallic shoulder piece. She had a keyblade.

Sora cringed in pain. “Stop!” he called to her, his voice coming out in more of a croak. How long had he been asleep? Where was Vani?

“I’ll get them to stop!” the woman called. “Don’t move!” she leapt over to Sora and took out the couple floods that had been nudging him. Sora cringed in pain again; the girl noticed and quickly used a cure spell on Sora, which of course didn’t help at all. She then hurried back to the larger group of unversed.

“AQUA! STOP!” Sora shouted, jumping up. Wait, Aqua? How’d he know her name?

Aqua gasped and froze, swerving to look at Sora. “Ven?!” Oh. Ventus was inside Sora; she must know him. He had yelled her name.

Sora realized—or did Ventus tell him?—that Aqua didn’t know Sora was the one causing the unversed to appear and probably assumed Vani was at fault here, and she had a huge beef with him for hurting Ventus. 

“Aqua, they’re not Vanitas’s! They’re mine!” Sora hurriedly explained.

“They’re… what?” Aqua asked, clearly confused as she looked around, realizing they weren’t attacking. Sora was surprised they had the sense to stop; had they realized that he wanted them to stop, and/or that she wasn’t actually a threat to Sora?

“They’re mine,” Sora repeated. “They won’t attack unless attacked first, or if they think I’m in trouble. They were trying to protect me.”

“Protect… you? From me?” Aqua dismissed her keyblade.

“Yes! I was asleep. They didn’t know you won’t hurt me; they just saw someone coming at them with a keyblade and assumed you were a threat!” Sora explained.

Aqua approached Sora. “You’re making them?” she asked, sounding slightly wary.

“Yes. And it hurts me when they’re destroyed.”

Aqua gasped. “It hurts you? I was hurting you? I am so sorry!” She sounded truly upset about it.

Sora shook his head. “It’s not your fault, you didn’t know!” Sora said hurriedly.

Aqua sighed. “That’s not really an excuse… anyway, why can you summon these things? Only Vanitas should be able to.”

“I’m not entirely sure,” Sora admitted. “But… okay, please try to have an open mind here. Ventus and Vanitas’s hearts both took refuge in mine, back when I was still a kid. I guess their hearts were damaged and for some reason instinctually sought out mine? Neither of them consciously did. I can only actually communicate with Vani, although Ven sometimes can shout stuff, like he did with your name earlier. As to the unversed, the working theory is that some of his abilities transferred to me; possibly some of Ventus’s too, as I’m pretty good at wind magic. Um. Are you following?”

“I think so,” Aqua said, looking a little nervous. “You said you’ve been talking to Vanitas? Sora—”

“Just, listen please? I know you hate him. Everyone pretty much does who remembers back then. But he’s not the same as he was! He’s actually been helping me get through things—saved my life, actually. Ventus has even reconciled with him because of it. Please, give him a chance?”

Aqua bit her lip and narrowed her eyes, taking a few moments to think. “...Okay,” she finally said. “I can tell you’re being truthful. I’m not going to forgive him so easily, but I won’t attack him if I see him. That’s the best I can do.”

Sora nodded. “Makes sense.”

“Where is he now?” Aqua asked. “Can he hear us?”

“Um. I don’t know. Usually everyone in my heart can hear me, but at the moment it’s different. A few weeks ago, he started being able to appear in the form of a flood, visible only to me, but the way he described it that’s more of a projection? That’s what it used to be anyway. Once we got here he became more solid, and can go further away from me now. He ran off to go look for Riku’s sister.”

“Riku’s sister?” Aqua asked.

“Oh. Right. So, you have a lot to catch up on…”

  
  


∞♣♥☼♥♣∞

“So, why were you lying on the ground there?” Aqua suddenly asked as they walked around in an attempt to find Hikari and Vani or a way out—although the latter probably was an impossible task, as Aqua hadn’t found one in nearly a dozen years. Sora cringed. He was hoping she wouldn’t ask. She continued, “It never even crossed my mind that they could be protecting you, so I assumed you had been attacked by them; I thought you were unconscious, or worse. ”

“I wish,” Sora muttered under his breath.

“What was that?” Aqua said sharply.

“A nap,” Sora quickly said, louder. “I know sleep’s unnecessary here, but I was tired already when I got here, so I thought I’d take a nap. They were there to protect me while I did so,” Sora lied.

Aqua sighed. “Oh, okay. For a second there I thought you said…” Aqua shook her head. “Nevermind.”

_ Sora, don’t lie to Aqua... _

Sora stopped walking. “Huh? Who said that?” He looked around. “Vani? No…”

_ Please... You can trust Aqua…. _

Definitely not Vani, as he hated Aqua… plus, it sounded sleepy... so maybe… “Ventus?” Sora ventured.

_ Please... _ The voice faded, and Sora got the feeling Ventus wouldn’t speak again for a while.

“Did you say… Ventus?” Aqua asked in an awed whisper. “Ventus spoke to you?”

“Yeah, I think so,” Sora said. “He never did that before, and I get the sense he went to sleep again, but it’s definitely not Vani or Roxas, so it must be Ventus.”

“What did he say?”

“He said I can trust you,” Sora divulged.

“Trust me? You don’t trust me already?” Aqua asked, sounding a little sad.

Sora shook his hands in denial. “No! I do trust you! Just… just not with everything,” he admitted. “He wants me to tell the truth.”

“The truth?” Aqua asked. “The truth about what?”

Sora shifted nervously, not sure what to say. Should he tell her? What were the advantages? It’d just make her keep a close eye on him. Well, closer than she was already; Sora got the sense that she was wary of him due to the relationship with Vani. Just like the others, she probably expected Vani to try something. Then again… he didn’t really want to die, did he? He had before, but… but maybe things would get better? Plus, he had the other people in his heart depending on him to protect them… he’d said he didn’t care about them the previous night, but that wasn’t true. Sora had said that in the heat of the moment; he didn’t really feel that way. He wanted to save them, and killing himself wouldn’t be conducive to that. The prior night’s incident had been impulsive; if Sora did try something impulsive again, Aqua could stop him.

“Sora?” Aqua prodded.

Sora looked down at the ground and put his hands behind his back. “I… I lied. Your suspicion was correct: when you said you thought I might have been dead, I said ‘I wish’. I didn’t just want to take a nap. I didn’t ask the unversed to protect me, even though they did anyway. I… I didn’t want to wake up. I was hoping the heartless would find me.”

Aqua breathed in sharply. “You didn’t… Sora, are you saying you…”

“I wanted to die, yeah,” Sora admitted. “And I… I still kinda do…”

“Well, the Realm of Darkness can cause feelings like that; I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel like giving in sometimes, too,” Aqua said empathetically. “Don’t worry. I’m sure once we’re out of this place—” 

“No,” Sora said, shaking his head. “That’s not it. It isn’t this place getting to me. I felt like this in the Realm of Light, too. It’s… they say I need to see someone about it. Get medicine or something. I was going to go today—yesterday? Time is weird here—but then Yen Sid summoned us.”

Aqua looked immensely worried for a moment, then steeled her expression. “Even more reason to get out of here as fast as possible, then.”

“After we find Hikari and Vani,” Sora reminded the bluenette.

“Yes, after we find Hikari.”


	19. Chapter 19

“Sora!” Riku shouted, dashing over to the boy he loved and practically tackling the brunette. “Sora, you’re okay,” Riku sighed, clutching Sora tightly.

“‘Okay’ is relative,” Sora muttered. “Can’t be okay if I’m squeezed to death.”

“Sorry,” Riku said sheepishly, feeling his face heat up as he loosened his grip. “Better?”

“Mhmm. I’m glad you’re here, Riku,” Sora said, wrapping his now-unconstricted arms around Riku’s waist. “How’d you get here so fast?”

“Fast? Sora, it’s been nearly a week!”

“What?” Sora looked shocked. “It’s only felt like a few hours to me! Damn, this place really messes with time… so, how’d you find me?”

Riku blinked, taking a moment to process that. Well, a few hours wasn’t so bad; Riku had been concerned that, having been a week, Sora might have… no, Riku didn’t want to think about that. “Ah, well, first we tried a few different places we thought you might go, but then when you weren’t there I remembered that not thinking of a place could lead here. Mickey had a way to enter here, so here we are.”

“Mickey’s here?” Sora asked.

“Well, yeah, don’t you see him?” Riku hadn’t run that far ahead, had he?

“I can’t see anything but your hot muscular chest,” Sora said, still slightly muffled due to his face still being pressed into said chest. 

“Right.” Riku felt his face flush at the comment as he pulled back a little.

“Hey, I didn’t say I didn’t want to see it!” Sora said teasingly, looking up at Riku.

Riku couldn't help but stare into Sora’s eyes, deep pools of blue whose irises narrowed as the brunette’s pupils dilated in response to the affectionate look Riku was sure his face presented, causing Riku to lower his head slightly with their gravitational pull. Sora took advantage of this, pressing up on his toes and connecting his lips with Riku’s into a passionate kiss, Riku’s hands automatically clutching Sora’s waist to keep him stable.

Riku broke the kiss sooner than he’d have liked, and sooner than Sora wanted too, judging by how the brunette had tried to follow.

“Hey, why’d you stop?” Sora complained.

“We have an audience,” Riku reminded Sora.

Sora blinked, then stepped back, blushing. “Oh. Right.” He looked behind Riku at the others. “Hey guys.”

Riku turned too, sure his face was also bright red. He noticed the expressions of the others. Kairi had known already of course, and Mickey had a knowing smile too (he’d known already that Riku was gay), but Donald and Goofy looked completely floored by the revelation, clearly not having caught any of the hints earlier. 

Kairi giggled. “That’s quite the way to come out!” she sighed. “Wish I had the balls to do that.”

“Do what?” Goofy asked. “Kiss Sora?”

“Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll find someone else,” Donald told her consolingly, patting her gently on the back.

Kairi blinked, then smacked her hand to her forehead. “Gods you two are dense.”

“Huh? Don’t you like Sora?” Goofy asked, looking confused. “You gave him that wayfinder charm thing.”

Kairi gave Goofy a flat look. “Best friends can give each other presents, you know, even if they’re different genders. And I don’t need to find someone else, Donald, because I already have a perfectly nice girlfriend of my own.”

Riku chuckled at the duck’s flabbergasted expression. He was glad that Donald and Goofy seemed to only be surprised at the targets of affection, not upset over their sexualities in general.

“Huh. Are all keyblade wielders gay or something?” a girl with blue hair—Riku hadn’t noticed her in his excitement to see Sora—asked. “Because it really seems like it right now.”

“Nope! I’m bisexual!” Kairi declared. “Although that’s still not straight, so you still have a point.”

Sora jumped in with, “Actually, Mickey’s straight! I think.” He turned to the mouse. “You are, right? I mean, you’re married to Minnie…”

“Well,” Mickey said. “Marriage doesn’t automatically make someone something, but in my case, yes, I prefer women.”

“Wait,” Riku said in part to divert the direction of the conversation, looking at the blue woman. “Who are you? You seem familiar.”

“I’m Aqua,” the woman replied. “We met a long time ago, when you and Sora were very little. I’m surprised you remember.” She turned to Kairi. “I met you, too, in Radiant Garden… I see you still have the protection charm I gave you.”

“Huh?” Kairi said, touching her hand to her necklace. “Um. I’m sorry, I don’t remember anything from when I was little. I only remembered to keep this on, even though I wasn’t sure why… wait. You said Radiant Garden?” Kairi gasped, then looked immensely excited. “That’s where I’m from? I don’t remember anything from before I woke up on the Destiny Islands… oh!” she turned to Sora and Riku. “Can you take me there? I want to see it! Do you think Selphie could come too? I really want to show her the other worlds!”

“Does Selphie know about the other worlds?” Riku asked. They weren’t supposed to tell anyone but their parents.

Kairi blushed. “Um. In my defense, no one told me about the whole World Order rule until after my second kidnapping.”

“Is she the only one you told?” Mickey asked, looking worried.

Kairi nodded, still clutching her necklace. “Yes. Only her. She’s the only one I’m close with, other than Sora and Riku.”

Mickey nodded, then turned to Aqua, a big smile on his face. “So, Aqua! I’m so glad to see you again! When you sacrificed yourself, we all thought the worst…” As Mickey said this, Riku nodded in agreement. The previous year, when Mickey and Riku had been trapped here too, Aqua had helped them close the door to Kingdom Hearts—well, a small version of it at least—via defending them from a swarm of heartless as they closed it. She had vanished afterwards.

Aqua laughed. “Honestly, I did too. I’m surprised I managed to survive! I’ve been wandering around ever since, but having found a way out yet… wait. If you’re here, does that mean you have a way in and out?”

“Yup!” Mickey said. “It’s thanks to that special keyblade of darkness I found here last time. Recently I discovered that it has the ability to open doors into here. It’s very particular about where, though—I only found two places so far, one in Radiant Garden and one on the Destiny Islands.

Suddenly, Riku realized something. “Wait. Where’s Hikari?!” He couldn’t believe he’d forgotten about her again in all his excitement over seeing Sora! Some big brother he was. Riku put his hands on Sora’s shoulders in panic. “She went with you through the portal. Please tell me you know where she is and she didn’t end up on a different world or something!”

“Um.” Sora said, biting his lip slightly, causing Riku to become more worried. Did something happen to his sister? Sora took a deep breath, then said, looking like he was trying not to cry, “She was with me, then wandered off. I don’t know where she is—Vani went to find her, but…”

“Vani? You sent Vanitas to find her!?” Riku knew Sora trusted the guy, but that much? Riku trusted Sora’s opinion, but it was still difficult not to worry a little after hearing all the things Vanitas had done… then again, Riku had done plenty bad too in the past, so if he could be redeemed Vanitas probably could be too. Still.

Sora looked panicked, and some of the floods and rabbit unversed appeared by his feet. “Yeah, he has a physical form here, though still looks like a flood...I know I should have been looking for her myself, I know okay! And I was at first, I swear! But… but then I… I don’t know, I just kinda gave up, and Vani went off to find her himself, then Aqua found me, and… oh, crap, I told him I’d wait there, but we’ve been walking around!” Even more unversed began appearing as Sora began panicking more.

Riku pulled Sora close, trying not to panic himself, though he was dangerously close to doing so. The last thing everyone needed was them both having panic attacks or something! “Hey! Sora, shh, it’s okay,” Riku said, for both their sakes, stroking the brunette’s hair.

“We’ll find them,” Aqua said confidently, stepping over to the boys. How could she still be so strong after being trapped there so long?

“Actually, it looks like they found us,” Mickey said, gesturing to somewhere behind Riku.

Riku turned to see a large flood with crimson highlights rushing towards them, Hikari riding joyously on its back. Riku felt a mix of relief and concern—relief that Hikari was safe, concern that she was riding on a being of darkness running at a very high speed.

_ Sora! What the hell! I told you to stay put! Do you know how worried I was?! I thought— _ Vanitas froze in place as he noticed the group Sora was with.  _ Oh hell no. Not her. _

“Vanitas. Rude as ever, I see,” Aqua said vitriolically, putting her hands on her hips and glaring at him. She blinked. “Wait, did you say worried?” she asked, confused.

_...No. Why would I, a being of pure darkness, be worried? Don’t be ridiculous.  _ Vanitas said haughtily. Riku didn’t know the first thing about flood body language, but it was still quite obvious from his tone that Vanitas was trying to hide embarrassment at being caught being worried.

“Vani, don’t be like that!” Sora said, laughing. “And Aqua, you said you’d be nice!”

“No, I said I wouldn’t attack him unless warranted,” Aqua corrected.

Sora rolled his eyes. “Same thing.”

“No, it’s really not.”

_ Don’t bother arguing with him. It doesn’t work, trust me. _

“Trust you? Why should I?!” Aqua snapped, back to glaring at Vanitas.

_ Fine, don’t then. Waste your time arguing semantics with—wait wait wait. You all can hear me?! _

“Looks like it,” Riku told the flood. 

Vanitas scuttered up to Riku.  _ This is yours. _

“This…? Oh.” Riku realized Vanitas meant his sister. “Thanks for finding her,” Riku said gratefully, picking his sister up. Vanitas scampered back to Sora, opting to scramble up the brunette to perch on his head.

_ Yeah, well, it wasn’t easy. You have to teach her to stop trying to befriend everything; she somehow had convinced some heartless to play jump rope with her with a spiky poisonous vine.  _

“Jump rope?” Riku asked. “She’s not even two.” Riku looked at his sister. True, she was advanced for her age on a lot of things, including mobility… But jumping rope?

“What?” Aqua asked, confused. too “There’s no way a kid is playing jump rope at two!”

_ Well, she was. Using air magic, but still. Definitely jumping rope. Or, vine. A spiky poisonous vine. With heartless. _

Kairi giggled. “She must have learned that from Sora. He tries to befriend everything, too.”

“What! Do not!” Sora protested.

_ You decided to befriend me, who is basically darkness incarnate. You tried being friends with half the Organization, trying to convince them to turn to the side of light.  _

“Oh come on! That’s not the same thing at all! Besides, part of that was Roxas remembering them, so I thought I already knew them!”

_ Details. _

“Hey, everyone?” Mickey interrupted. “Remember where we are. We might want to get out of here.”

  
  
  


∞♣♥☼♥♣∞

“The Realm of Light,” Aqua said in a hushed voice as she stood on the Destiny Islands beach, holding Hikari. “I’d started to think I'd never see it again.”

After walking a bit, the group had arrived at the Dark Beach, where Mickey had been able to open a door that connected to the Secret Place on the Play Island—not the same door that had opened a few years prior, rather a different one. Riku wondered why so many things seemed to come back to that place; perhaps that’s how the Destiny Islands had received their name.

Sora grabbed Riku’s arm tightly with both hands, dragging him slightly away from the group. “I don’t want to be here,” Sora said so only Riku could hear, shaking slightly.

“What, on the Play Island?” Riku asked. “We can go home if you want. Our parents are probably worried again; we’ve been gone more than a week, probably. Could be longer.” You never knew how long you were in the Realm of Darkness; time passed oddly there.

Sora shook his head. “No. I mean, yes. I want to see our parents. But I don’t want to be on the Islands anymore.”

“Okay…” Riku said, not expecting this. Although, maybe he should have. “Where would we go, then?” Riku assumed Sora would want Riku to go with him, and Riku didn’t want Sora going anywhere alone, anyway.

“I don’t know. Just, not here. Anywhere but here. I don’t think I can get better staying here,” Sora admitted. “Ever since I got back, it didn’t feel like I belonged here anymore, even more so after everything that happened. There’s no way I can be happy staying here…”

“Alright. Just tell me where you want to go, and I’ll go there with you,” Riku promised.

“Me too,” Kairi said; Riku and Sora both gave a start, not realizing she’d snuck up on them. “Actually, I was thinking maybe we could all travel together? I asked Mickey already; he said I can bring Selphie, too. We’re going to check out Radiant Garden, since I’m apparently from there!”

“Oh, right!” Sora proclaimed. “My mom wanted to move to Radiant Garden!”

“What?! Since when?” Riku asked, unprepared for that declaration.

“Uh. Since whenever last I saw her. I dunno how serious she was, since she was kinda vague when she said it, but yeah. I’ll go ask Mickey how that works, just in case she actually was serious.” Sora skipped off with false cheer towards the mouse, who was talking with Aqua.

“Oh!” Riku realized something. “Do your parents know you’re going to Radiant Garden?” he asked Kairi.

Kairi sighed. “Not yet. Selphie’s don’t know either; I have half a mind to not to tell them at all, honestly… actually,” Kairi got a sly look on her face. “Selphie and I, before we go, are going to come out to them. Well, probably. I haven’t discussed it with her yet, but pretty sure she’ll be on board.”

Riku raised an eyebrow. “That’s not the expression I’d expect. What are you plotting?”

Kairi grinned. “We’re going to pack our bags first, since we’re pretty sure we’ll be kicked out for it. Then, we’re going to ring the bell, and our parents will answer the door to us making out in the yard!”

Riku blinked. “Wow. I guess that’s one way to do it…”

“I got the idea from you and Sora!” Kairi declared. “When you met up earlier in the Realm of Darkness,” Kairi clarified at Riku’s confused look. “Donald and Goofy didn’t know yet, you know.”

Riku blushed. “Ah, yeah, I know.”

Sora rejoined them. “So, whatcha talking about?” he asked.

Kairi explained her plan.

“Nice!” Sora said. “I would never have the balls for that.”

“Sora, you did the same thing earlier today,” Riku said, amused.

“Okay, well, I mean consciously. I didn’t know everyone was there,” Sora countered.

“So, what did Mickey say?” Kairi wondered.

Sora frowned. “Apparently he already talked to my mom, after we all met at Yen Sid’s. We’re going to Radiant Garden anyway. Like, all of us.”

“All of us?” Riku asked, confused. No one mentioned that to him.

“Yeah.” Sora sighed. “I mean, Kairi, you of course asked, but Riku, you and I are kinda being forced. At least I am. There’s a psychiatrist there who knows about other worlds and everything that Mickey’s insisting that I see. I get the feeling it’s non-negotiable. My mom’s coming along, because she doesn’t want to be separated again and apparently she was serious about wanting to move off-world anyway. And Riku, obviously you’ll be going wherever I go regardless, but apparently your dad and sister are going there too, so even if you weren’t glued to me you’d still need to go there unless you want to live alone on the Islands.”

“My dad’s moving to Radiant Garden?” Riku asked, confused. Why would he want to go there?

“Yup!” Sora said cheerily. “They want Merlin to help Hikari learn magic. Apparently he’s trained magical children before. Yen Sid has that amulet for her, but she can’t just wear it forever.”

Riku blinked. “That… that does make a lot of sense,” he acquiesced. Riku wondered if Merlin could teach him some more magic, too. “So, Radiant Garden, huh? You know a lot of people there, right?”

Sora beamed. “Yup! I can’t wait to introduce everyone! I just know my mom will get along really well with Yuffie and Aerith, and I’m sure your dad will get along with everyone, too! He always gets along with everyone.”

“Not everyone,” Riku said. He was a lawyer and equal rights advocate; he’d made quite a few enemies.

“Okay, everyone who isn’t homophobic,” Sora corrected. “Which is good, because everyone there is fine with that!”

“Really?” Riku asked, skeptical. “You know that for certain?” 

“Dude, they all live with Merlin,” Sora said, as though that were proof enough. “Which we all will be too!”

Kairi interjected. “Wait, what? How will we all fit? Just how big is the place?”

“As big as it needs to be!” Sora declared. “It looks one story and small on the outside, but it’s huge inside! It adds floors whenever one is needed. Apparently, there’s even an entire forest on one!”

“An entire forest,” Riku repeated, having trouble believing that despite having had much exposure to magic. Maybe it was like Castle Oblivion’s rooms, in that it was an illusion of a forest rather than an actual one.

“Yeah, I’m actually skeptical about that too,” Sora admitted.

“Hey, wait a second,” Riku realized. “Where’s Vanitas? He was with us when we left…”

“Oh, he’s sitting on your head right now,” Sora informed Riku, who gave a start at that news. “Apparently he still can’t maintain a physical form in the Realm of Light. But, I’m sure he will be able to someday! Maybe even a human form, too… oh, and we have to rescue Ven and Roxas and Xion, too, of course. Naminé, too. We’ll figure that out though. Right?”

Riku nodded. “I’m sure we will,” Riku said, smiling fondly at Sora.

Kairi—No, Naminé? Both of them?—smiled gently, too. “Yes. If anyone can find a way, Sora, you can.”

Riku couldn’t help but get excited thinking about the future; it had been a rough two years, but things seemed to be finally looking up for them. There of course were more hurdles to overcome, but they were small compared to all their past trials and tribulations. Well, maybe not small, but manageable. There were no big bad guys attempting to destroy the universe, and no wacky Organizations trying to do them in. And of course, most importantly, everyone was finally together.

Yes, Riku had good feelings about the future.


	20. Epilogue

Sora sat curled up next to Riku on a chintz couch on Merlin’s ground floor. Riku had his arm around Sora, reading some sort of complex book on keyblades while Sora read a middle-grade book about a kid spy he’d found in Merlin’s library. Despite all his whining about the books they had to read for classes, Sora actually liked reading when he found a book interesting enough to hold his attention—none of which were the ones Yen Sid had assigned them to learn more about keyblades and magic, like the one Riku was reading. 

Speaking of Yen Sid, he’d reluctantly agreed to Sora keeping Vani in his heart, if only because Aqua had joined in supporting Sora’s wishes about such; she said if Ventus thought Vani had a chance at redemption, that was good enough for her. Plus, Sora had made it explicitly clear that if Yen Sid did not allow Sora to keep Vani, the side of Light would lose one of their heroes. Thus, Yen Sid had agreed, although he did insist Sora live with Merlin, as he wanted a wizard supervising. Sora was fine with that, as he was going to do so anyway. Everyone was.

Hikari sat on the floor off to the side of the two boys, playing with some sort of whirling floating magical toy Merlin had given her; two rabbit unversed had joined her, to her immense delight. Sora and Riku were babysitting her while their parents were at work, with Vani’s help… well, if sleeping on the back of the couch could be considered helping. At least everyone was able to see him now. Vani still could only talk to Sora and Hikari—no one was really sure why Hikari had been able to see and hear him and the other unversed from the very start—and was unable to actually affect anything, like a projection, but it was progress.

Speaking of their parents, Sora’s mom was helping renovate the castle’s library, with the intent of reopening it soon, with herself as the librarian of course. Riku’s dad was helping with general restoration work, as well as helping draft laws, seeing as there was no governmental system in place yet. Prior to his arrival, it had been more or less a free-for-all as the former ruler, Ansem the Wise, was missing and no one else really knew much about law, especially since most of the legal records from before had been lost. Leon and Cloud had been keeping general order, but they really appreciated the help in getting some actual laws in place. 

Aqua had first gone back to the Land of Departure, which apparently was hidden within Castle Oblivion or something and was where Ventus was hidden. Once she confirmed Ventus’s body was fine, she went to Yen Sid’s, as he had some sort of journey Aqua could go on to get some special ability that could possibly help wake Ventus. Apparently Yen Sid had originally planned on Sora and Riku doing that, but, well. Sora could admit he was in no position to do such, and Riku refused to leave Sora’s side.

As to Kairi and Selphie… well, Sora wasn’t really sure where they were at the moment. Probably making out somewhere. Which he would love to do with Riku, but that wouldn’t be a good idea while on the ground floor while watching a magical toddler—Merlin had insisted that Hikari’s magic not be fully restricted, so although she currently couldn’t use her keyblade or do powerful enough magic to destroy the room she could still use it to cause trouble. Anyway, back to Kairi: she had decided to start working on her keyblade skills—well, more accurately, she had been training them in secret while on the Islands, wanting to surprise the boys. Which she had! Sora had been a bit jealous, actually, at how far she had come; it had taken Sora a while to learn intermediate-level magic, yet the first skill Kairi decided to show off had been a ‘watera’ spell. Of course, she still couldn’t even light a candle with fire magic, so maybe it was a trade-off. Riku and Sora would be helping her train further.

Then, of course, there was Riku. His Riku. Sora couldn’t believe how lucky he was to have such a perfect boyfriend. Sora snuggled up closer to Riku, who shifted slightly and placed a kiss on Sora head.

Sora couldn’t help but smile. Yes, things had been going really well. They’d only been there barely two weeks, yet things were so much better than they had been on the Destiny Islands! Sora actually was feeling good for the first time in a while, although Sora wasn’t sure if that was because of the environment itself or the medicine the psychiatrist had given him. Probably a combination. Either way, he was feeling good. Sora was in a place he loved with lots of friends, his family, and his Riku. He’d even been able to get a better handle on controlling the unversed, able to un-summon them immediately after accidentally summoning them regardless of emotional state, although a few always tried to stick around, like the two rabbits. Of course, he didn’t feel this good every day—there definitely had been a few bad ones—but overall, things were finally looking up!

Sora really hoped he hadn’t jinxed things by thinking that.

A magical bell chimed in a quick pattern that somehow reminded Sora of glitter, signalling someone was at the door.

“I’ve got it!” Sora declared, leaping up. He reached the door within seconds—he loved that here, unlike on the Islands, he was allowed to use his magically-enhanced speed!

The smile Sora answered the door with almost immediately faded to an expression of shock as he saw the tall man with long spiky bright-red hair standing in front of him. Yup, he’d jinxed it.

Axel stared back at Sora, equally as shocked, blinking a few times before he spoke. “Uh. Hi. So, I need to talk to Merlin… about a keyblade.” He held out his hand, and lo and behold, a fiery keyblade appeared in it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you all enjoyed! <3
> 
> Despite the ending being a little open-ended, there will not be a sequel to this. (There is however a sequel being worked on for my series "Sora's Found Family", which also features a very depressed Sora, so if you like that theme and my writing but haven't read it yet go do so before the sequel! The sequel to that, which will probably be as long as this or longer and out in a few months, will include Vani as one of the main characters, too, if you like Vani-Sora friendship. In fact, it'll include him so much that half is from his POV!).

**Author's Note:**

> Comments always welcome! Let me know the things you like and dislike so I can improve in future works!


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